Mass Effect: Elite
by Kelial
Summary: Explorers are a strange breed. What happens when one stumbles across a group of aliens who's government's ego is larger than the space they control? How will the people of those two governments interact? TUNE IN TO FIND OUT!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Introduction: So I've been playing Elite: Dangerous and reading Mass Effect Fanfiction and go this idea in my head. Now I'm putting it down on 'paper' so to speak and putting it out there. This will start from where Elite is now on the PC and consoles and the Mass Effect calendar won't be changed so they're somewhere around the year 2700 starting from the formation of the Council with the Asari and Salarians (something like 500 BCE by our calendar) so Humans will actually have a lead on space travel. Although the Elite universe's 'lead' is a lot of time of generational ships and then their wonderful FTL journey. Won't drown you with exposition on it but you are free to look all that up at your leisure.**

 **So quick bit: main character for this story in this universe is a Commander out exploring because while I fly my ships around in the FDev version of the Milky Way I always think it would be absolutely tits to run across another alien civilization while scanning planets. Not a chance in hell that'll make it to the development cycle on FDev's plate this century but its decent stuff to contemplate while going space crazy.**

 **Now without further ado, BAM!**

* * *

The engines spooled up as his hardpoints deployed, throttle in the blue, two pips in systems, four in weapons, aligned with the offending ship. A direct communication pops up on his message feed.

"I've got word you've got a certain passenger aboard. I'll give you a choice…"

Ship targeted, missile lock pending…

"You can either jettison the cabin they're in or we do this the hard way."

' _Do none of these tryhards ever figure this out? This isn't my first rodeo.'_

He glances at his status and chuckles, "Novice". Nowhere near the "Deadly" combat rank this bounty hunter has. Only problem with that is-

He opens fire while hitting his thrusters to send him 'up' vertically while keeping the nose pointed at the ship and reversed thrusters to move backwards, the Vultures always try to get above that huge hardpoint. Barring that, they're more maneuverable so this one would try to dart past and blast the rear of the ship.

' _Tough luck for him though, been there done that, collected the bounty vouchers.'_

-they never think to check that I never look for combat. Only ever seeing whatever manifest they're looking at, what they want from my ship and seeing only the "Novice" combat rank -

Three large pulse lasers, two medium and one huge multicannon unload on the ship, the nose of his 'conda keeps tracking as the Vulture hits his boost and tries to track around the back of his ship, just like he knew it would.

-They always think I only ever lose ships. Sure, the Vulture is a good ship for bounty hunting -

The shields on the smaller ship fail before it gets past him, laser light and hardened rounds start bludgeoning the hull of the smaller ship.

-but he's not met any other Cmdr on these passenger missions who had the good sense to fly their ship-

Two small seeker missiles streak out as the Vulture starts to pull distance, 600 meters and increasing.

-with any skill outside of a corny one-liner and deploying hardpoints.

He watched the hull indicator of the Vulture drop to zero, the ship loses power and starts to flat spin. Two more seeker missiles dart out to make sure the ship dies.

With a small smile and an amused shake of his head at the sight of an expanding cloud of metal and gas, Marcus retracts the hardpoints and is turning as the notification of the bounty flashes on his screen, 53k credits for less than a minute of work.

-Frame Shift Drive charging-

His message feed pops up with another message, the second, grateful message that always follows those little additions to these missions.

"Well Lucy, there's another one huh? I'm almost disappointed the fights aren't harder." The ship's ambient noise didn't change much from the building whine and shudder as the countdown reached zero and the FSD wrapped the ship in warped spacetime towards their destination.

He throttled down to hold the counter at six seconds as he chuckled, opting to speak to his ship rather than check the message from his passenger.

He patted the arm of the chair, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not unhappy they seem to be so incompetent. Just that a bigger bounty would be nice sometimes."

[Safe Disengage Ready]

With a shudder and a whine, Commander Marcus Reir's Anaconda - Lucy - dropped back in line with the rest of the universe, a faint rippled echo in the form of a low wake lingered as he lined the ship up with the "mailslot" of the station, getting within a few kilometers and dropping landing gear and speed.

With a shudder the ship settled on the pad and the engines wound down as the station tethers took over powering the ship while replenishing the emergency supplies. He selected the passenger lounge in the station services and clicked on the intercom to the passenger cabin.

"Thank you for flying Lucy-Anaconda space lines. Remember, we're part of the 99% of all the other space liners out there and good luck now that your out of the previous shithole."

He clicked the complete mission button and noted his credits increase by the expected amount. Ferrying refugees tended to be lucrative although he didn't know where the factions got the money or inclination to pay over a million credits a head to evacuate them. He imagined there would be a much closer look at the employment contracts soon. Until then, it was easy, well-paying, and mind-numbingly boring work. Still, with his cargo sold and missions turned in, he spun his chair around and looked around the bridge for a moment.

"Well Lucy, what do you think? Mining for a while? Maybe surface scans or some bounty hunting?"

He walked over to another console, long since designed into obsolescence in the ship, he pushed a few of the prompts, hovering over the cargo hold.

' _Not the most but a quick refit and I could do some trading runs…'_ He brought up his wallet screen into his field of vision with a thought, the pilot federation implant superimposing a familiar status screen on his sight and the number - 1,633,792,450 Credits. Idly he looked at it for a moment before tapping on the console and walking back to stand next to his chair.

Looking down he saw the fuel consumption at 0.00/s with no indicator for fusion since the ship was running off station power.

His shoulders slumped a bit, "Right, you always go right to sleep once we get docked up." With a short laugh, "Sure, fine! I get it, leave all the decisions to me…."

He stared out the window at nothing in particular for a few moments before navigating to the Cartographics screen. The corner of his mouth quirked up as he made a decision and highlighted "Sell Page"

He hesitated to sell the data though, it was only 640k Credits of data. Just what he had accumulated through the past few weeks in the bubble. Nothing new, just some things he'd personally never seen before.

"You know what? Stay put Lucy, I'm going to actually go to the office and turn this in." Knocking on the console before turning to leave and speaking to his ship in an off-key sing-sing voice, "If only to talk to another person before taking off out into the void."

The door in the back of the bridge slid open and Marcus' footsteps were sure. It was about time he went and found something new again.

* * *

He turned to wave to the clerk at the desk as he walked out of the station's Universal Cartographics, "See you next time! I'll have a whole lot more next time you see me, ….next time!"

' _Smooth, next time eh? Thanks brain.'_

He straightened out as the door closed behind him, having gotten his fill of talking with other people, muttering, "If you see me again, not sure I'll come back here now." Then with a spring in his step he turned and started making his way back to Lucy, turning the next corner and nearly colliding with a rail-thin woman and her daughter.

"Oh, I'm very sorry miss….uh…" He went to step around her and the small child, completely unprepared for another interaction with another person but stopped himself.

The woman smiled, her green eyes looking into his, "No, no it's alright, are you Commander Rein? The one who just flew us here?"

He took a step back, interested or no, he had a bit of a bubble of space they were in. Leaning back against the opposite wall a few feet from the two, "Yes, you're a few of the refugees? You don't look so good." He winced internally as the unfortunate statement left his lips.

If the woman noticed she didn't say anything but did laugh, "No, I don't but we'll be better off now. I just wanted to thank you for getting us out of that, ah, 'Shithole' as you put it."

He just chuckled and rubbed his eyebrow, not really sure what to say to that before she continued, "That's not what I wanted to say though, I really wanted to thank you for taking out the man in that Vulture."

"Oh? Were they after you?" She shook her head at this quickly as an unmistakably angry look crossed her face.

"No, he was after my wife, killed her a week ago on one of the planets in the system we were in. Apparently the site manager agreed to sell all the employees at the listening post into slavery and my Vega disagreed with that."

Feeling entirely out of his depth with the sudden influx of personal information he didn't have time to think he blinked for a few seconds, "I get slavery offers from time to time when shuttling people, I always deny them on principle."

' _Well, that was stupid.'_

Again, he felt stupid but she didn't seem to notice, "Well, it's never come up for us before but that's good to know. You killed the man that was following us though, he couldn't collect Vega, he ended up having to kill her and the ship the others were on and so he decided we would take her place." She choked up at that, nearly breaking down as she looked down and hugged her daughter with her other hand.

Deciding there was one thing he could do, he kneeled down to eye level with the girl, "Hey, I like your hair! That's a very nice shade of red, it's very pretty."

The little girl leaned against her mother's hip, not quite hiding but not saying anything back to him and for a moment his mind raced before something occurred to him.

"Wait, does that mean _you_ paid that 53,000 Credit bounty that was on him?" The woman shook her head at that.

"No, that was put on by the station administrator once we told him what happened, I paid out the 12,000 Credits in addition to the mission payment he paid to have us evacuated."

He ruffled the little girl's hair as he stood back up with a thoughtful look on his face, "What will you do now? Can you do what work you did there, here?"

The startled, almost panicked look that flashed on her face told him everything before she got it under control, "I'll think of something." She looked down at her daughter for a moment.

He brought up his wallet readout again in his field of vision, looking to the two he was standing next to like he was just staring off into space for a moment before he made up his mind.

"How about this, what's your name?" She looked confused for a moment before answering, "Kaitlin Ruger, this is my daughter, Anna Ruger."

He nodded as he opened a few prompts with his mindcom and put the information in, sending off a message to the Pilots Federation in one view and in another he found her information on the station manifest.

"I see your name on the Station Manifest but it has another name after it?" Tears formed in her eyes for a moment as she looked down, obviously having trouble keeping from crying.

"Ruger is my maiden name, my wife…"She sniffed and paused for a moment, "Our marriage wasn't recognized at this station so I had to use that name and not She-" Tears rolled down her cheeks and her daughter hugged her which she promptly returned in kind.

"I'm sorry to hear that, it had to be hard to go through all that." She nodded in thanks, still unable to speak as she just looked at her daughter.

"I can't make it not have happened…" he finalized the transfer of Credits to her, "but I can help, I don't know what you did do before but I've sent off a recommendation to the Pilot's Federation for you to get licensed and transferred a million credits to your name."

The woman looked up abruptly, obviously stunned, "No! That's not-" He held up his hand to stop her.

"I know, I know but I've literally got a billion and a half Credits to my name, an Anaconda along with just about every other ship a guy like me can own. Besides, I'm going to go exploring outside the bubble. Probably for months if not longer. I've got exactly zero use for those million and I think you two would enjoy the chance to not be tied to a single place." He shrugged, "Memories and all that."

He smiled at her stunned silence before he nodded to himself and made to leave before she could gather her thoughts. As he passed her, one other thing crossed his mind, turning to them as he began his walk to his ship he said, "And I've never been married but if I were you, keep her name. If only to remember her, it's a good name."

He turned the corner to the airlock at the pad Lucy sat in waiting and he heard the woman yell after him, "Thank you! I will!" He smiled as the inner airlock door opened and he heard excited laughter between the two.

' _I suppose helping people face to face helps the boredom too.'_

The outer airlock opened and he got a rare, outside view of his ship, ' _Still, it's time to get out of here.'_


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok, so obviously the first chapter was to just setup a bit of the main character and the situation that led him to go out and get into the trouble I have planned for him. This chapter I'm starting to bring the two together.**

 **Also, I should point out that I'm going to be taking liberties with Elite: Dangerous' world with some of the tech. Just going to be adding in things that I think a thousand years from now will have in my mind. So if you run into something that isn't in Elite then you can probably assume it is me filling in that gap in a way I like.**

 **Criticisms** **are welcome, I got this idea a while ago and wrote a few chapters then sat on them, reading through them a few times and buttoning them up. I'm hoping to get out a chapter a week if not two but this is the first time I'll be trying to keep to a schedule or anything so we'll see. I'll really try to not let this story end up dead like a lot of the good stories I've seen on this site. Time will tell.**

* * *

" _Commander, thank you for breaking from your usually reclusive lifestyle to take the time for this interview. I'm honored that you chose to share your story with us today."_

" _No problem at all Ms Allers, although I don't consider myself reclusive, just...hard to reach."_

" _Of course Commander,"_

" _-Please, call me Marcus, I get Commander enough from traffic control."_

" _Well Marcus, then you may call me Diana and I will say, you certainly are hard to reach! No surprise though, considering the galaxy is a big place."_

" _Big is just a word Diana, the reality of it is a much more….intense experience…."_

" _..."_

" _..."_

" _Marcus?"_

" _Ah, sorry. *ahem* One of the reasons I've put off speaking in any public place. I'm awfully used to silence and silence makes terrible entertainment."_

" _No need to apologize Marcus, I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase 'explorers are a strange breed'."_

 _Ha! Yes, of course, I've heard the phrase a few times in my life. Never thought much of what that meant, it never really warranted much though. I didn't think about it the entire time working to get off-planet or saving money for the pilot's academy. Didn't cross my mind right up to when I finally got my first Sidewinder and found myself staring at the galaxy with nothing but the canopy between me and hard vacuum. I knew then, not a coherent thought, no. It crystallized into that for me staring at Sag A._

 _No, at the beginning of my career it was a sudden feeling like everything I was doing was just the in-between time before going out. That nagging feeling like you're not doing what you SHOULD be doing."_

" _..."_

" _Ah, sorry, didn't mean to rant. As you can tell, I'm not so good at this sort of thing."_

" _No problem at all and I think the galaxy is better off for you having followed that feeling Marcus. Can you explain what drove you to exploration so fervently? By official counts, even before meeting these Council races you had a significant amount of discoveries to your name. There's an entire constellation that was first discovered by you! When did you realize that exploration was who you were?_

" _The first time I dropped out of hyperspace and found myself staring at an undiscovered star...ah, well, it was like my personal ambrosia, my raison d'etre, my…..ah, it was amazing Diana. Seeing some of the celestial vistas for the first time, very possibly the first sapient since these stars and planets formed billions of years ago. For me that was, and still is, where I belong."_

" _..."_

" _Well, and the paycheck when I return is pretty damn nice too. I will say, despite how personally profound it was for me though, it's hard to put into words."_

" _I don't know any I've met who can although we can see it in any other explorers we meet. Even if they themselves don't really know it yet. I've actually introduced a few people to exploration. I sometimes, when running passenger missions in the bubble, meet the people I was flying around. Led to some interesting conversations."_

" _That leads me to my next question Marcus, even amongst your discovering you have also logged a not-insignificant amount of time as a trader, passenger shuttle, security missions, bounty hunting, mining, and if the accounts are to be believed, you even had a hand in ending a civil war in one system and a few famines for a few stations. This is an impressive list of achievements even not including your discoveries and role in first contact."_

" _Oddly enough, a lot, most of in fact, other Commanders have similar lists of achievements, I just got lucky to be bigger news because I met some new life that could talk back."_

" _True, but I think a lot of people are curious about this and you specifically because usually, the more systems a Commander has discovered, the less they work in the bubble. Colonia and Beagle Point maybe, but not in the bubble like you continue to do."_

" _I think some of it is me, personally, I don't have the same issue dealing with other people like a lot of explorers I know. I'm awkward and poorly spoken at times but I don't shy away from it. That's the main reason I ended up in the situation I was in. I enjoy my time out there but there are still unknowns in our space as well."_

" _I'd like to think that most everything has been discovered in the bubble Marcus, at least of note."_

" _It's not just planets and stars for me though. It's new things in general. I still run passengers because I keep meeting interesting people. Most people hear 'explorer' and think of this reclusive individual who only holds conversations with their ships."_

" _Do you have conversations with your ships, I've also heard of a trend among Commanders to name their ships, do you have a name for your each of your ships?"_

" _Heh, well, yes and yeah, the famous ship I was in is Lucy and she's a hell of a ship. So maybe THAT stereotype isn't off the mark."_

" _But as I was saying, the stereotyped explorer would have just left. I know three explorers whom I have no doubt would have just scanned the ships, the wreckage, the system and continued on. If you believe one of them, she's done exactly that on one occasion."_

" _I'm sure it makes a good story though"_

" _You've got to be three beers into the night before she'll bring it up though so take that for what it is. Besides,_ _meeting_ _the aliens makes for a better one."_

" _True, as we see here, now, you were saying?"_

" _Right, well, I'm alive in the void, that's true. I don't just stare into the abyss, I greet it like an old friend and invite it in for lunch, ask about it's kids and compliment it's shoes. But like I said, there's more than just star systems to explore in this galaxy. I was lucky to find others out there"_

" _...You would describe it as luck then? Not inevitable like some have said since the announcement?"_

" _Well, we're all just stardust right? I think there's no other way I can put it that won't sound insufferable. There's a lot of stardust out there and I'm lucky to have found some of the more interesting bits of it…."_

Excerpt from the Galnet interview with Commander Rein, First Contactee with the Council races.

* * *

His attention focused on the audible buildup while he felt the drive charge through his chair. The timer dropped to zero and there was a flash and the strangeness of witch-space slid by around him. Faint whispers and patterns outside the ship that a person could fool themselves into believing were reaching out to them. Lights slid past and he wondered, not for the first time, if those were the stars he was passing by in real-space. That thought was pushed to the side for a moment as the jump started to end and time felt itchy.

He heard and felt the small lurch that came before the ship dropped out at the destination star. The visual of what was going on outside the ship automatically dimmed as his Anaconda dropped back into normal space. Adjusting the throttle and moving around the star he heard the fuel scoop activate and dropped down to minimum throttle while his scanner charged.

The deep throng of the scanner called his attention to the navigation window.

' _Huh, only seven things on the scanner this time.'_ Mumbling to himself he finished his thought and throttled up, "This'll be quick at least, won't it Lucy?" He adjusted in his seat slightly as his ship accelerated in supercruise, keeping the usual zero-gee in the ship.

"Now, since we scanned from the star on out in the last system, I think it's time to mix it up a bit and start from the farthest item on this list and move in. Don't you agree?" He listened to the sound of the drive rise in pitch as his HUD showed increasing multiples of the speed of light.

' _Only 35,000Ls away…'_ , he adjusted his course and throttled down until the timer read roughly an hour. Then he let go of the controls and hit the command for his seat, stretching his arms out as it swiveled around before his suit uncoupled from it. With a well-practiced push he floated out of his chair and stretched, shaking a bit as he got the full-body stretch he had wanted to do since his last neutron star boost.

' _32 light years a jump always gets some laugh with the other explorers but it works just fine for us doesn't it Lucy?'_

He bumped against the ceiling and with an affectionate pat on the bulkhead, he pushed off again, ' _besides, why be in such a rush if you're exploring? Always defeated the point for me, more jumps not less.'_

Gripping the handles placed in the ship for zero-gee, he made his way to the back of the bridge and opened the small drawer with the nondescript cartridges of food. Having been out exploring the galaxy for the better part of a month he was in the 'just need food' stage still. He figured in a week he'd hit the "let's see what new food pattern I got from the last station" stage and try something new but he wanted to hold off until he was really tired of the bland, basic food.

Since this was his fourth trip out amongst the galaxy he had begun a tradition after the second time out. He wouldn't do anything fancy with his food until he was on his way back to the bubble, or a settled system. He still hadn't decided if he was going to go to Colonia or just bounce around scanning for a while before going back for a while. Remembering the last time he plotted the course and that he had mulled it over before heading galactic north east, well, he'd been to Colonia before and he could always take the roundabout way if he hit the galactic rim.

He finished the meal and pushed off the wall to idly drift towards his chair as he watched the system go by almost serenely. The small streaks that were rendered on the canopy to help give the Commander a better sense of motion went by almost unnoticed. His gaze unfocused for a while before he bumped into the back of the char and shook himself off.

Glancing around at the interior of his ship he smirked, "Alright Lucy, I get it, don't space out while flying at dozens of times the speed of light." he grabbed the back of his chair and glanced at the bobble-station sitting on the dashboard as his suit coupled back onto his chair. Thinking briefly back on the souvenir of his chosen base of operations. It was the only personalized item on his ship besides it's name, Lucy. The small inscription on the base of it that his friend at Vacauson Station had put on it, "For our Ally, CMDR Rein"

As he reminisced he almost missed the two notifications "New Contact found" and moments later, "Contact Lost" that flashed on his hud. The ship's display showing distant object he had selected, or the closest approximation of an unknown object changed now as he approached it. At first it had been a generic asteroid cluster but now it had changed to only a question mark. ' _Well that's new...something wrong with sensors, they're d-rated but still...'_

Pulling himself out of his daydreams he focused on the timer as he throttled back and changed course to let his sensors actually go through the process of scanning whatever it was. Excitement built alongside a sense of nostalgia, something new out in the void and it was still just like the first time.

Usually he had to wait until he was out of supercruise and much closer to actually find something genuinely new but this was looking to be the exception to that rule. After ten seconds of scanning he didn't think anything of it, scanning always seemed to take longer than he'd liked when he was focusing on it. After twenty seconds he frowned at the orange question mark as it changed to the generic planet, then an asteroid cluster, back to a planet before settling back into a question mark. As the distance count dropped from light-seconds to Megameters he noticed it seemed to be fluctuating.

' _What in the hell?'_ A smile broke out on his face as he checked his other systems, "Well Lucy, we've got somethin this time, you're looking good at 98% on all systems, fuel's good, and we've got room in the cargo hold."

He reached forward and patted the dash, "Let's go see what the galaxy has for us today, shall we?"

Looking back at the brackets around the point he was going towards, now within between ten or 29Mm, it still hadn't figured out what it was, the way the holo changed between things was new and he could feel the suspense building. He had to throttle back as the distance dropped and the scanning was still going. After nearly forty seconds of scanning, finally the speed and distance markers popped up. He was 14Mm out from whatever it was and he was beginning to get worried something was just wrong with his scanner. The distance to safe disengage started out at 1.00Mm and he was approaching it with 14 seconds on the estimate so he still had some time for this to turn out to be something real. His hud, which had up to now read "Unidentified Signal Source" suddenly seemed to make a decision, the safe disengage distance jumped to 1.5Mm and read "Weapons Fire Detected [Threat ?]"

As the moment of disbelief that he would find two other Commanders in the process of fighting clicked in his mind, his hands seemed to work on their own. His hardpoint selection flipped to his weapons and as his mind caught up to muscle memory, he flipped to the next selection to make sure his chaff and heat sinks were loaded before quickly flipping back just as the safe disengage jumped to 4.3Mm and the notice popped up earlier than he expected. His usual smooth, practiced motion to safe disengage from supercruise looked more like a twitch this time as he reacted to the notification nearly instantly.

With a familiar shudder, the ship dropped from supercruise and his ship readjusted itself for it. His sensors swept the local space and information started feeding in. Throughout the local space he was reading three different ships, one small, fighter-sized ship, one about the size and shape of a Type-7 without the canopy, and one large, blocky one in the distance.

What surprised him was that the distance one didn't show up on radar but rather was visually distinct in that he didn't recognize the shape or size at all. Considering he could see it and it was outside his radar range, he assumed it was roughly the size of a Corvette but could be wrong if it was further than just outside the 7km it would register on his HUD.

Looking at the closer, blocky ship, the six engines at the rear, two rows of three, were badly damaged. A hole punched through three of them and from where Marcus' ship was he could see the hole punched out by whatever had shot the ship just in front of where the engines connected to the ship on the opposite side. One engine was left weakly sputtering, looking more like a dying ethereal blue bowl of plasma than a proper starship engine. Something had punched through the engine assembly diagonally behind the actual thrusters.

His eyes were drawn up the length of the ship, taking in the details of what were very obviously holes from a mass driver weapon, none of the glowing, exploded, melted wax look that laser weapons produced. Thankfully he was relieved to quickly realized there were none of the sickly green clouds of corrosive material or pocked marked armor that was the calling card of a Thargoid attack.

' _At least there's no bugs.'_ His relief was short lived however when the smaller ship took notice of him. In a rush he realized he should be ready and redistributed power, three pips in systems, three in weapons. He decided to keep his hardpoints withdrawn however as he took in the sight of the ship turning towards him. Glancing back at the damaged ship and then the larger ship in the distance, his mind began putting the pieces together. Disabled engines, battle damage, didn't seem to have shields, small ship flying directly towards it without firing. It was a boarding action after having disabled what appeared to be a trader's custom T7 ship.

He kept his ship where it was, he didn't recognize anything about this situation and a quick check for the system he was in confirmed he was indeed very much outside the bubble. That's when it happened, an alarm flashed on his hud as his computer detected his ship being scanned. Nothing new, he'd been scanned before.

" _Except nearly time I've been scanned that wasn't going in or out of a station was immediately followed by some stupid one-liner and getting shot at, fun times...still, this far out?"_ That's when his eyes focused on the damaged ship again, noticing what appeared to be the ship name written across the bow. Only issue was it was entirely unfamiliar to him and that was saying something considering how well-travelled he was through the bubble.

His hud flashed the notification of a ship scan as it all ran around in his head, odd signals, middle of nowhere in the galaxy, strange writing. He concentrated for the moment needed to target one of the smaller ships. Almost as soon as he did another notice for a ship scan flashed up. As his hud displayed the ladar silhouette of the ship he selected, the image not matching anything he could think of, his eyes slid over the damaged ship again. Taking in the lines of the ship he with everything else in mind he nearly jumped out of his seat if not for the coupling as his radio suddenly began blaring sound.

Static at first flooded over his speakers a sharp crackle and he could suddenly hear panicked breathing with what he swore was screaming. Memories of evacuating stations after Thargoid attacks came to mind. Then he heard it, the voice that spoke over the radio is something he knew he wouldn't forget. A musical, almost breathy, and distinctly female voice sounded to be pleading in a language he had never heard before flooded his bridge. He could almost see the image of a panicked crew member huddled over the transmit button speaking hastily into a mic as someone screamed in pain from an injury. His eyes widened as he tried to figure out what the desperate woman was saying before she cut off mid-sentence and sounded as if she was speaking to someone else in the ship in a reassuring way. He heard the scream lessen for a moment as the woman spoke before a burst of static, a thump, and a renewed scream came across the channel for a brief second before cutting off abruptly. He saw the stern of the damaged ship begin to drift, an expanding cloud of debri expanding from a new hole near where the last functioning engine had been sputtering.

Something had blown in the ship but before he could process that another alarm sounded before he could do anything, the ship scan detected warning changing to a 'surge detected' for the ship he had selected before his ship lurched, the smaller ship having opened fire on him. The small representation of his ship showing the kinetic rounds pinging against his shields.

"Shit shit shit!" He mashed four pips into his engines, turned off flight assist, and cranked the controls to the right and up, turning and spinning his ship to present the smallest side profile to the ship in front of him as he deployed his hardpoints and boosted up.

He felt the ship thrum with power as it responded just as quickly as it always had, he moved up, hopefully out of the unknown ship's firing arc and spun in an attempt to bring the smaller ship in line with the space in front of his ship where his weapons would converge.

"Shit shit SHIT! " He yelled as he moved his ship up and around, the ship he was facing darted around much faster than he had expected, quickly out of his ideal firing arc of his weapons. He felt the ship shudder and saw the impacts on his shield near his engines on his holo readout. Setting the throttle in the ideal spot for maneuverability, he dropped speed as he jammed the controls up to change his spin in the other direction. The 470 tons of ship stopping almost immediately and moving how he wanted, he boosted forward and got the smaller ship in front of him.

Ignoring the distant ship that started to shakily read on radar, he moved his ship behind the smaller one as it moved into a turn to track where he would have been a moment ago. With a thought he targeted it and spared a split second to notice that for all the strangeness he had dropped into, it was still registering shields although the image displayed was half-formed. The computer hadn't had enough time to scan and build a good image of it with ladar since the silhouette wasn't in the database..

With a grim expression, his reticles swung up in line with the small ship and he mashed the trigger. To his surprise when pulse and beam lasers crossed the ship, there was no normal shimmer of shielding like he had expected. Instead one angry, red line was burned into the ship as the pulse lasers seemed to be rapidly punching out red-hot divets in the small craft's hull. Puffs of flash boiled metal blasted off where the lasers hit. His multi cannons finished spinning up and began spitting out hundreds of rounds only for _them_ to spash against a shield to his confusion.

"Shit." He was nearly blinded for a moment as his pulse and beam lasers converged over the engine on the smaller ship and it detonated. Quickly pulling up and past it, he boosted again, this time he began tracking the larger ship which had targeted him as well.

Whoever or whatever was piloting that ship must have been smarter because they seemed determine to get him in front of a large-bore, fixed weapon on the bow of the ship. Something that Marcus had no intention of letting them doing.

"Ok Lucy, shit, I don't recognize any of these ships, and neither do you, do you?" The boost and thrum of the ship at battle was the only answer.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." He put four pips into shield and two into engines as swung his ship around the large ship approaching him.

' _Holy tap-dancing-nutballs, that thing is ugly.'_ The large ship, which was easily visible now that it was within six kilometers and closing, stuck him as an especially strange ship.

His mind and eyes wandered over it and the only thing that came to mind was that two people designed what they thought were the ugliest ships and then cut them in half and welded two ends together, painted it badly and threw some sharp, thick writing on the outside.

As a warning blared on his HUD as his shields dropped to nearly zero his eyes widened to nearly the size of dinner plates as he realized what just happened. He had been slow for a second and the ship hit him with a glancing blow with that large cannon.

He shook his head and boosted down and below the ship, not realizing he was doing exactly what the "Dangerous" pilots he'd been interdicted by always did. As he hit the boost again and got close to passing the ship, his radio squaked on again, the same panicked, feminine voice burst out of it.

He got within a kilometer of the larger ship and he realized it was half again the size of the Corvette but didn't seem to have any hardpoints on the bottom of the ship.

' _Is it the bottom though? I have no damn clue.'_

His train of thought was broken when he heard a very child-like scream and the voice stopped abruptly before begging in the strange, musical notes again.

He scowled as he made a decision, targeting the larger ship just as he passed it, he turned flight assist off and swung the ship around to face his laser weapons to the larger ship. The sight caused him to pause however as the two engines were much brighter than any he'd seen. His heat spiked as he passed behind the ship, using his vertical thrusters to circle around the rear of the ship.

He popped a heat sink as the temperature hit 73% and opened fire with his lasers on the engines of the larger ship. With the sound of the woman and child crying still coming over the radio channel he sneered as the lasers cut into the ship, small explosions firing off across the arc his lasers cut on the ship, both engines dimming suddenly as the beam laser cut one engine assembly in half and partly into another before they stopped. He glanced down to see that he hadn't put any pips back into weapons.

Dropping two in weapons and keeping four in system, he cut the other engine in half, pieces spinning off as smaller explosions flashed for a moment before cutting off. The engines dimmed to a smoldering orange colour and the larger ship drifted forward, listing slightly before correcting itself after the uneven thrust of the engines.

He could hear his heartbeat thumping in his ear and the faint sound of the previously desperate sounding woman now replaced with heavy breathing and labored crying. Suddenly that too cut out as the larger ship fired again on the disabled ship, hitting a protrusion near the front and cutting off the signal that he had picked up.

Keeping behind the ship and seemingly out of any firing arc of the weapons it may have, everything settled on him suddenly as he just stared at the two ships.

"God dammit Lucy, who's ship is that? Can you tell me?" He glanced over at the contacts tab and saw two, unknowns listed before snapping back to glare at the ship he had disabled.

"I think we might have just met some new friends Lucy….and they shot at us. Yay." With a shake of his head to clear the shakier feeling of the adrenaline in his system, he hit his thrusters, drifting up and with FA off to keep his weapons pointed at the larger profile of the ship while presenting the smallest profile of Lucy.

He looked very closely at the hull, more and more recognizing the alien nature of the ship. Muttering "shit" under his breath the entire time when suddenly his shields registered an impact again and he snapped up to see a dome-shape with a flat, glass-like panel on it tracking him. He didn't see any visual indication like was usually displayed for him with normal lasers but with a thought he targeted that dome and burned it off the hull of the larger ship. With a thought he set the profile of the domes as a target although it would take more work to setup the firing detection to project a visual of a laser like the computer did for every other laser he knew of.

Without another word he drifted around the outside of the ship melting the domes. "So Lucy, they've got turreted lasers but where's their RCS thrusters? Not a single one but I did see it adjust itself after we blew the engines. Though the ship doesn't seem to be moving much either so maybe I just missed it?"

He tilted his head as a thought popped in his mind and hit the trigger for his multi-cannons again and just watched as the blue shielding rippled.

"Well...that seems kind of useless as a shield. Seems good for kinetics though." Looking over the ship again, "Just who the hell are you assholes?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Alright! Another chapter to continue the story. I've also included the URL to the fitting for the Anaconda that Marcus has. It's a sort of quick switch out from passenger missions to exploration. It's actually the fit I'd used when doing exactly what Marcus was in this story. Running passengers and then just saying screw it and going exploring. Some of it's different now because of engineering I've done since then but it's basically my ship so WHOO!**

H-tee-tee-pee-ess-/-/ : s. orbis .zone/YEwr8WWX PM me if you want to see it and can't figure out the link.

* * *

The readout for the Fugly-ship was still processing, his scanners doing their work trying as hard as 34th century tech could work to figure out just what the crap was going on with the….alien ship he had disabled and was now floating by. Some of the subsystems were staying in the list, shields, hull, sensors, laser turrets, railgun(?), and engines. The power core kept popping in and out though as if the computer couldn't actually get a read on it. He squinted at it as the whole page went blank for a moment. Suddenly he jumped when the words "Surge Detected" popped up on his screen and the ship's damaged engines flared for a moment and the ship suddenly disappeared.

"What the crap?" He hit the controls and Lucy angled around with a disgruntled look on his face, searching for the wake he could follow before he remembered he had stacked shield boosters in his utility slots.

' _Guess we'll do this the hard way'_ Keying the command to engage his FSD, his ship thrummed as the power built and with a flash he was in super cruise. Flipping open the contacts tab he saw two contacts, selecting the top one showed the damaged ship the transmission had come from, the second one showed the ship he had been scanning and it was rapidly pulling away.

Swinging around like the whale of a ship she was, Lucy finally lined up, his mind started to catch up with what was happening.

' _How in the hell did that ship already get up that fast?'_

"Oh yeah, it's a friggin ALIEN ship!" As his ship sped up an odd feeling began to creep up on him.

' _Great Marcus, you have no idea what was actually going on or why you were shot at. What the situation was, that disabled ship could have been a fugitive with some hostages!'_

He thought back to the voices he heard, the child-like crying and screaming, the reassuring sounds, the desperation in the voice speaking that musical sounding language. After a moment of mulling it over it occurred to him as to why he reacted so quickly. He had heard those same voices before in pirate attacks on ships and stations.

' _No, different words but they sounded the same. Someone was attacking someone who was begging for someone else's life. And that's exactly the shit I don't put up with.'_

Suddenly he laughed out loud as the strangest part of the encounter popped into his head, "Even if this is first contact."

He flipped over to his Fire Groups and paired up his FSD interdictor to one firing trigger and grouped his large and huge laser turrets to the other firing trigger and then watched as the distance between the ships slowed and then stopped expanding, his fist tightening around the throttle.

* * *

"Get those fucking fires out!" Captain Gano was having a shitty day. A simple intercept of some Council-space border merchant shouldn't have been such a colossal screw up. Everything had gone great, by the book in fact. Well, if there was a book on that sort of thing. In the back of his head he found it amusing that the Hegemony may very well have a book on that exact thing. Ambushing Traders on Their Entrance to Lawless Space for Enterprising Pirates.

The sound of a short in his helmsman's console pulled him back to his situation and he stood, walking over to his subordinate's console just in time to see it flickering, the data readouts broken and incoherent. With a quick motion he slammed his fist into the side of the middle-caste batarian's head.

"Why didn't you tell me your console was broken?! Do you have any idea which damn direction we're even going?" The offending crewman had the two eyes on his left side squinted closed in pain and the other two open in fear as he grimaced away from his Captain and tried to come up with an answer that wouldn't get him beaten.

"Gano, he got us the hell out of there as soon as he could like you were yelling for him to do. You didn't say anything about where to get to."

Gano turned and glared at his XO who met his glare with a level stare for a moment before he grunted and went back to his chair, "Carry on helm, plot a course to the gas giant we discharged at earlier. Put us in polar orbit, we need to take stock and perform repairs."

He sat down in his captain's chair and pulled up his haptic display to go over the reports, at the same time his XO took that moment to begin summarizing the worse damage.

"Engines are down to 12% sublight capacity. Barriers are back up at full, the hull-"

"What the hell was that ship using that our barriers were still up and they still broke my ship?" He read over the engineering report, specifically the section detailing the melted metal that had ran down one of the walls on the exterior where a shot had depressurized a room.

"Lasers, have to be, that or some sort of plasma...a modified guardian array maybe? Those damn things hit a lot harder than any guardian array I know of though. Definitely better than anything that we'd see out here and that ship sure a hell wasn't Salarian. Too many hard lines." His XO paused at this to review the same report his Captain was looking over.

He flinched and looked at his Captain when Gano smashed his fist on the chair, "Dammit! We'll be running supplies for Aria for a fucking year just to pay off this damage! The entire guardian array is slag along with most of the engines!"

The XO could see that yes, that entire very expensive set of equipment was indeed very, very broken. "Well, I know the Hierarchy didn't have anything anywhere near that sort of laser array when I was serving Captain. Or any ship that could move that way that's not a fighter."

Captain Gano was about to reply that the ship that attacked them after destroying their shuttle had moved more like a Turian fighter than a frigate that it's size seemed to suggest it was. He would have voiced that to his long-time XO and fellow pirate if his ship hadn't taken that exact moment to do it's best impression of folding in on itself under him.

The lights flashed and almost died as a screeching and twisting sound could be heard as the crew were thrown around the ship, the superstructure of the ship strained horrendously. The constant, and while recently damaged but still consistent droning of the Mass Effect core keeping the ship at superluminal speeds suddenly fluctuated wildly to the point that the sound seemed to match up with the shuttering impacts in a discordant cacophony of noise that seemed to be hammering the ship. With a sudden final lurch after what felt like an hour in a rock tumbler, the ship stopped and after a moment the main power dropped and emergency lighting and systems came up.

There was moaning across the bridge as Captain Gano pulled himself up and looked around, seeing that he had been flung across the bridge and was now against the panel that opened the door to the starboard side of the ship. He attempted to stand up only to find that he just drifted away from the floor and flailed his arms.

"Dammit! Zero-G, what happened to the Mass Effect core?" He brought up his Omni-tool and selected the channel for his lead engineer.

"Rask! What the hell happened?" He paused, only silence coming across for a minute and was about to move down the roster before the channel keyed.

"Captain, the core is dead. Our FTL envelope collapsed and it looks like the hard shutdown kicked in and killed it. Kicked a surge through the ship and fried most things directly attached. I might be able to get communication and life support back up but anything eezo related will have to wait until I can get the core back online."

With a snarl the Captain nudged against the ceiling, cut the connection, and pushed off the wall towards his chair. That at least had straps so he wasn't just floating around while he lost his temper.

As he was finishing strapping himself into his chair he glanced around to see the bridge crew doing the same. His weapons officer was cradling his arm, it seeming to be broken when the sensor officer looked up with a panicked look on his face.

"Captain! That ship is circling us again!" Gano's face flashed with anger, "Then flush the damn buffer and check again!"

"It showed up after the system reboot sir, the sensors were already flushed!" A dull, shaking thud ran through the ship and the crew looked around for a moment to try to see where it came from.

The second thud was louder and broke the spell on the bridge as they all felt the ship shift slightly below.

"What was that?" The XO looked down to his station to try to get an answer, seeing only warnings and errors.

With a quick motion, the XO engaged his armor's emergency seals, a small mass effect field popping around his head to seal his suit against vacuum.

"Sir, it may have been sections of the ship depressu-" another thud that was much louder and longer, the faint sound of the hissing of metal being cut accompanied this thud before it stopped abruptly.

A scowl formed on Captain Gano's face, "Someone get us back to the relay and away from this damned ship!"

The sudden movement was punctuated by a new sound, the thudding was in fact depressurizing sections and the hissing sound was very close to the sound of a plasma cutter going through metal. None of the bridge crew had any reason to go slower than if their life depended on it. It was apparent that it did.

* * *

Marcus ignored the flashing heat warning for a moment as his huge fixed beam laser flash boiled it's way through the ship he had just interdicted. Years spent in resource sites and combat zones honed his sense when his weapons were reaching the heat-shut off point and he let off just under that. Sending the signal for another heat sink to cool everything down, he moved his ship carefully in place to cut the last third of the way to the center point of the ship. Where the bridge of the ugly ship sat. Or as close as he could guess was the bridge, few designs called for that much connectivity and centralized equipment without it being important for the ship.

He was finally rewarded with a gout of atmosphere that briefly flashed on fire as it travelled through the crevice that he had lasered out of the offending ship. Indicative of an atmosphere with oxygen in it he absentmindedly noticed as he moved his ship into position.

The last cut he had made was wider that the others just so he could do what he was planning. He wasn't sure if he would have a chance if he just blew the ship up and with the desperate sounds of the transmission playing in his head from the other ship he had decided he would see what sort of cruel being would do that.

He thumbed the button for the boost and his ship shot forward from 0m/s relative to the ugly ship up to 240m/s in the short distance before the bow of Lucy plowed into the weakened gash he had made, embedding the first three meters of his ship in the other. Then he wrenced the control to one side and down, creating the most expensive crowbar that arm of the galaxy had ever seen.

The screaming, tearing noise lasted a moment before Marcus shook his head and hit the command for flight assist and his Lucy stabilized in time for him to see the chunk of alien ship spin awkwardly off into nothing. He feathered the controls again to bring the bow of his ship, now twisted and gouged, to see into the hole he had made.

After a moment of staring down 70 meters of his ship he angled the top of his ship to the hole so he could look 'up' and look into the hole he had made. In it he saw what was left of the bridge of that ship. A dark, vaguely human-shaped mess floated up from the center, apparently having been smashed when he dug his ship's bow into theirs. He saw another body float by, apparently not belted in when he had struck and with no helmet, they had not been prepared.

' _Guess combat operations discipline is lacking on this ship then. Too bad for them….'_ The thought trailed off as he realized that there was blue blood pooling up around the body's neck.

' _Huh, blue, definitely alien still.'_ With a squint, Marcus focused on the next body. Only this one wasn't just a body, it was moving. Apparently with no helmet but that could mean anything. This one seemed to have been vaguely competent with the way it moved up to the hole and looked through. For a moment they both just stopped, Marcus couldn't make much of it's face out that made sense. Spikey protrusions on the side of it's face and back of head, double pointed 'chins', and then he noticed the eyes. Small, deep set, and doing their best to bore into his.

' _Oh, I see you. I don't know why you decided to shoot those poor bastards down or why your people shot at me but I'll be damned if you get to do it again.'_ With a small nod to himself he briefly noticed the alien seemed to understand what that meant as Marcus maneuvered Lucy back and put the reticle of his huge beam laser directly on the shape he could make out in the hole.

There was a brief pause before he held down the trigger until the overheating errors popped up on his HUD and he sneered at the cooling glob of molten metal in the heart of the ship before letting off the controls and slumping back, just staring at what he had done.

* * *

It was ten minutes later as the destroyed ship was slowly spinning in front of him that he finally stopped just staring at the dead ship.

' _You may have started a war Marcus, good job. High-five!'_

' _...'_

' _Heh, at least it'll be a hell of a story! Now, that looks like that smaller ship that started shooting first…'_

Marcus' eyes followed a shape that was spinning end over end slowly after having banged against what looked like a hangar door on the side of the ship. With a shrug and a spurt of good-old opportunistic thinking, he moved slowly forward and let it bang into his cargo hatch. Briefly he was worried it would get wedged into it before the notice popped up that it had been scooped. The inventory tab noting "Unknown" in the list and two tons. A quick command and the cargo bay's auto system lashed it down securely.

' _No reason to let two tons of alien ship bang around like seeds in a marca.'_

With that he slumped back for a moment again, nudging the ship around back the way he came before he sat up suddenly.

"The other ship!" With renewed vigor he keyed the command for the FSD and hit the boost, if only to move that tiny bit faster.

"Shit, I could have been back ten friggin minutes ago! There could be survivors! I might be able to figure out just what the hell was happening too…"

As his ship hit supercruise, he smirked, ' _My luck they'll be some Thargoid cousin species and how in the hell am I even going to talk to them?"_

More of his experienced wisdom he had gained in his travels in the Bubble and Galaxy as a whole came to the forefront at that moment to crystallize his feelings for that moment in his life.

"Shit"

* * *

 **Also, reviews would be appreciated if only to let me know what you all think of it. I've got the outline and an overall plan for the story but I'm open to criticism.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: So here we are again, another chapter. More progress for first contact! Slower going than some fanfics involving Mass Effect but there is a reason I'm doing it mostly from Cmdr Marcus' point of view. I do have a plan! Or that's what I tell myself. I've written before but this is the first time I'm doing it with some semblance of a plan. I've got notes, an out line, timeline and all that nifty stuff.**

 **Anyway, hope it's entertaining!**

* * *

*FWIP*

"155 Meters of Falcon/Delacey excellence drops out of supercruise and banks left to move alongside a severely damaged alien spaceship with all the grace my years of experience have given me." Marcus looks out the canopy at an obviously aged and now even-more-obviously damaged ship. Mumbling to himself in an attempt to make light of the fact that he had only recently hunted and killed a ship full of aliens on first contact only because they themselves had hunted and were killing a ship full of aliens. That part had started to get to him.

So now in his best try-not-to-stay-crazy tradition, he was narrating his actions, "He lines Lucy's cargo hatch up with what appears a damaged external airlock because beyond what seems to be running lights, there are no longer any emissions from this ship."

"Marcus does hope that there are survivors, what about you Lucy?" Marcus pats the armrest, pausing a moment with his hand up about to pat it one last time. A moment passes where the absurdity of what he was doing dawns on him and he clears his throat and goes over his modules menu, shutting down the non-essentials so Lucy runs cold while he's out.

'Alright, so talking out loud isn't working so well. Let's just try just getting on with it then eh?'

With a resigned sigh he sends the command that uncouples him from his chair, pushing off lightly to float away from the console in zero-g before moving towards the back door on the bridge, lightly pushing off the hand-holds to get there. Pushing his feet to the floor, the magnetic field on the soles of his suit engage and with a small fump, attract to the metal plating.

Walking carefully the distance through his ship he makes it to the entrance of the cargo area, grabbing the vacuum-rated kit and suiting it up, his helmet last. The tinted, smoothly curved faceplate goes opaque for a moment before it finishes syncing up with his mindcom and lightens to his preferred transparency. He checks his connection with Lucy and the ship status pops up in his field of vision.

With his Remlock suit sealed for vacuum, he goes through the airlock which pulses a flash of intense UV light to sterilize. Without missing a step he passes through the small airlock, the 'external' door leading into the unpressurized cargo hold opens half a second before he would have walked into it. Having set the internal sensors to do so on one of his trips out in the galaxy. He had found that he could set the sensors and bulkhead speeds to move as fast as he could move in zero-g without missing a magnetic seal on his foot. Boredom can do things to you out there. It's the little things that make it better.

'Besides, it's my ship and that's how I wanted it.' he mused, trying again to distract himself.

With a thought, the command for the cargo hatch is sent and it extends, the sound of the hydraulics distant as it can only travel to his ears through his feet at this point. He steps to the end of it and looks at the alien airlock some ten meters distant and feels apprehension shiver down his spine. He's been in hard vacuum outside his ship before. Eventually nearly any explorer ends up just floating out a bit and with the telepresence features on ship it's trivial to keep close to your ship. Or rather keep your ship close to you in most cases.

No, the apprehension is for what he worries he'll find on the other ship.

'It looks nearly familiar from the outside and those aliens I killed looked similar enough to me that I don't expect tunnels and living walls or something….I really hope.'

Another second and deep breath and he pushed off towards the hatch to drift sedately towards it. Soon after the sudden realization that he didn't know if the alien hull was magnetic or not hit him and he realized he might just bounce off. Luckily as he drifted closer, he saw that there would be a handle that he would be able to grab if that wasn't the case.

A few seconds later and with a soft clank, not only was he able to grab the handle but where his left foot touched at least was magnetic. He brought his right foot in and soon he was in a squatting position next to the door, looking with every bit of concentration at the small panel at around the height it would be for a human door.

'Alright Marcus, you found the door, and these are the controls. Now, maybe if I stare at this damn thing and really hope, I'll be gifted with the ability to read this gibberish.'

At a glance the writing seemed almost like something he'd see somewhere in the bubble but once you started really trying to make sense of what the writing said, it seemed to become more and more alien. With a frown he realized he didn't even know if he was trying to read it in the right direction or if it was right-side up. Realizing that was going nowhere fairly quickly he decided on the next best thing.

'Well, I am looking for survivors and I can't figure out this control…..' With a shrug, he knocked on the door three times, each time harder. With his suit's knuckles still against the airlock door he paused for a bit and started feeling more and more silly stuck on the outside of an alien ship, knocking.

With a sigh he pulled his hand away and held onto the handle, stretching out a bit to relieve the tension in his body he hadn't realized he had held and glanced behind him at Lucy. He felt a twinge of embarrassment.

"Yeah, I know, it was stup-" He was cut off as he felt movement through his grip on the handle, a distant hum of machinery. After a few seconds, it cut off and a light on the small control panel came on. A moment later the door soundlessly slid open, small bits of matter floated out. Dust, ice crystals, and what Marcus felt rather sure was an alien candy wrapper.

A nervous smirk found its way onto his face as he turned to the open airlock, "Well, I didn't come all this way just to ring the bell and run….

He pulled himself into the airlock and floated towards the interior door with some practiced grace. There were only a few dim lights running in strips in the top corners of the airlock that blinked on. Marcus tapped the wall lightly to turn himself around to look back out at Lucy.

A short glimpse was all he got before the exterior door slid shut and the white mist of atmosphere began to puff from nozzles around him. The lights brightened.

Then the floor slammed into him.

With all the sudden and unwelcome force of a visit from a Federation drop squad he hit the floor and crumpled as his mass decided at that moment that it would press itself against the alien floorboards. Not in anyway prepared, his legs buckled underneath him and the wind was knocked out of him for a moment as his helmet clanged against the floor.

Marcus gasped for air as he got his bearings, now lying in an awkward spread on the floor. Clarity returned in a rush as his instincts kicked in. The only thing he could think would make him slam into the floor and now stick to it like he seemed to be doing was constant acceleration.

Jumping to his feet, he sent a ping to Lucy, getting the reassuring all green auto-response before he frantically looked around the airlock, noticing the interior door was now open but dismissing it. If he was accelerating as fast as he felt like he was, he'd leave his own ship behind fairly quickly and he needed for that to not happen.

Seeing a small, holographic screen next to the exterior door, he darted over to it and tried to touch it. His fingers passed through the apparently holographic screen before he registered what he was seeing on it. It was a feed of just outside the airlock and he could see Lucy.

Confusion spread over him as he sent the command to turn the external lights on and off and the video feed on the small projection reflected that, albeit, tinted orange.

His hud popped in his field of vision and he checked the status of his ship, seeing that it seemed to be running as cold as he had set it to run and wasn't, in fact, moving at all.

A few more times of blinking Lucy's exterior lights and opening and closing the cargo hatch it slowly dawned on him. The ship wasn't accelerating, he was. At what felt like about 9.8 meters a second squared towards the floor.

The realization of what that meant broke through his concern and with a small giggle he raised his hand and relaxed it and it fell to his side.

"Well I'll be fucked, these damn aliens actually have artificial gravity!" with that sudden realization said out loud he remembered the open interior door and turned towards it, suddenly feeling a bit better about the situation.

'Well, if they still have all this on then I'd say my chances of survivors just went up. And the door opened so I'm…..welcome?' his previous apprehension came back a bit in the back of his mind as he took a stiff step forward and then looked down at his feet.

'Right, magnetic soles, don't suppose those are necessary here now that the aliens seem to know how to manipulate gravity.' Another thought and he was walking normally, the interior door of the airlock leading straight in for a few meters, lights turned on in front of him until he reached a cross-way leading in three different directions.

The walls of the ship hallways were a grey brown that were flat all the way from the ceiling to the floor and were made of panels a few meters long with tightly fitted seams joining them. No decoration although there were a few bits of writing he could see that seemed utilitarian to him. He absentmindedly wondered if they were notices or directions of some sort.

He stopped as he reached an intersection that the lights had stopped turning on at and looked down the other directions.

Straight from the airlock. Lights didn't turn on.

Back towards the airlock. The lights were staying on.

He turned left, lights didn't come on.

He turned right and the lights began coming on down the hallway that seemed to lead a door some twenty meters away. Figuring he might be being led he went that way anyway he started down that direction.

He noticed the hallway ended at at a door and he studied it for a moment, a dim holographic symbol was projected just over the surface of the door. It was a unthreatening, dim shade of green and when he poked at it, it spun and the door opened, sliding up.

What he saw just inside the door scattered any sort of positive hope he had about the ship. The lights in the newly accessible hallway came on and he was frozen by the sight of a line of what was apparently the aliens. He took slow steps in the hallway, staring woodenly at the line of bodies on the floor.

All down the hallway were roughly two dozen alien bodies toppled over against the wall and each other like dominos. None of the still had heads.

Stunned, Marcus could only stare for a minute.

"Shit"

A closer look at the bodies showed that every head seemed to have been blown off at the shoulders. The fact that all the bodies were so similar to human while at the same time different did nothing to help the panic welling up in him and did not quite make it to his conscious mind.

There were a few tan-grey bodies with red-orangish blood. Scaly blue bodies with grey-ish armored scales, one body seemed to have had a helmet on if the messy bits of hood still attached to the shoulders of the armor that body was wearing was any indication. A number of the bodies near the end all seemed to be the same light shades of blue.

Bending down to look closer at a body that was almost a sky blue with blue blood and organs too if the drying splattered meat near it was any indication, he saw bits of something shiny embedded in the alien's shoulder.

"Sorry whoever you were but I'm trying to figure out what….this….is…." His thoughts were interrupted when he realized the curved fragment looked a hell of a lot like a collar. Standing up suddenly and looking back over the line of bodies it clicked.

They had slave collars on and they all had been facing the door like they were lined up. Leading to the airlock. He had been shot at by something that looked like it was a shuttle.

"I interrupted a fucking slave raid!" The situation settled on his mind like a tangible weight with more impact than the gravity he hadn't expected..

"First contact with an alien race. It has to be a damn slave raid…" Standing in the hallway, staring up at one of the lights he could only take a deep breath and gather himself as his head spun and he swayed on his feet.

'I'd like to think there weren't any on that ship I destroyed but if that was a shuttle and the one I picked up….'

Shaking his head, he decides to move on to look for survivors before stopping, a realization freezing him in place. He had no idea if there were more of the slavers on the ship and he wasn't about to bet that alien slavers didn't have a way to shoot uncooperative crew.

'I have no weapon, I'm on an alien ship that was attacked by slavers and all the slaves are dead. Did they blow their heads when their big ship ran or was it something else? Crap, I need a gun if I'm going to do this, but….'

The thought of any survivors if the slavers hadn't stayed on the ship kept him from heading back immediately. The memory of the voice on the radio came to mind and he looked back over the bodies. There had only been two, one sounded female and desperate, the other young and terrified.

"Well, I do always like to help so-" He was interrupted by a sound, a wet, coughing sound from further down the hallway and a glance in that direction he could see the hallway lead to a door. Suddenly galvanized at the thought that he could help he moved quickly to the doorway.

Only to slip in something he'd rather not remember and smash his faceplate into the doorway. His sweaty face slammed into the interior of the faceplate smearing sweat, oils, and a small splatter of spit that flew out when he hit blurring his vision. Shaking it off and standing up he saw the alien that had made the sound. A blue shape that seemed to reach out to him and pleading in the same musical language came over the radio before. Now though, there was much less vigor to the voice. Now it was a whispered desperation that brought up all the worse memories for Marcus.

He has to help but he couldn't see much but blurred shapes and colors. Keying the helmet seal, he didn't even stop to think as he flung it off and gasped when he met the alien's widening eyes.

She was blue and there was nothing that would dissuade Marcus in that instant that the alien before him wasn't a she. The wide, azure eyes, high cheekbones, the mouth and chin all seemed to take after a human woman. A blue alien woman that was reaching out to him with one hand, trying to tell or ask him something with quiet desperation while her other hand seemed to be trying to hold her stomach together.

That's when he realized there was blue blood everywhere, he glanced around the room they were in. A console that seemed to have exploded that looked to have caused the woman's injuries and he was taken aback when he saw a large gorilla shape sitting still in the corner, slumped over in some sort of chair thing in front of a large console. Another glance around and the woman's musical speech brought his gaze back to her.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand! I don't even know what was happening but I did kill them." He gestured around to the other bodies.

"The ones who did this? I killed them." He tried his best to convey reassurance but felt he was failing miserably. He was reaching for anything to say now that might help but the woman was still reaching towards him and now seemed to be repeating something.

He knelt next to her, "I'm sorry, I-" He was stopped as he felt her hand touch his head, the skin was cold and her hand shaky but it pulled his eyes up to hers.

He only had a moment but the change in the alien's eyes almost startled him, they were entirely black as she said two words.

* * *

After everything that happened to Marcus, various people would ask him about what happened when he melded with the Asari on that Citadel merchant ship.

He would go on to always say the same thing, "There's plenty of things to find about the meld on the extranet and galnet sites and they could look it up themselves, I'm getting sick and tired of that question."

In reality, never once in his life did he ever want to think about what happened. Her mind slammed into his like a boosting Imperial cutter into a sidewinder. He felt like his mind was shattered and her pain, anguish, and terror was pushed into every piece like jagged glass.

In the best of situations in first contact, Asari melds have facilitated smooth contact. The graceful exchange of language and culture in a meld takes training and time. Something that Marcus did not get the benefit of as a five-century old scared and mortally wounded mother pushed every last bit of her life into her desperate attempt to make Marcus understand.

Pressure built to an almost unbearable level and then flooded beyond that, his thoughts lost in a wash of images, memories, and unintelligible words rushing through his mind in a jumbled rush.

For what seemed like forever he felt he would be lost in the mess of memories being stabbed into his psyche before the flood abated. The images and memories slowed to a stop and confusion welled up, quickly supplanted by a feeling of weary realization. The pressured impact he had been enduring let up for a moment with the feeling of realization. A shifting sensation seemed to flutter in his mindscape.

Then the pressure slammed back into his mind as he began remembering the alien woman's language. Concepts, grammar, and grammar settled in his mind and the other memories began to coalesce. Some of the clips and phrases he saw rush past him in his mindscape now held bits of discernible speech.

A strange, hunched mottled grey thing told her in a monotone voice that pirates had been detected on an intercept course. _-a feeling of worry._

An image of a smiling blue face holding a small child in a hospital bed. _-love and longing._

A blue arm darts out to steady herself against the doorway as the ship bucks underneath her. The image moves forwards and pulls the small blue, confused girl from the bed and hugs her. _-sudden spike of terror._

The little blue girl mutters "Momma, no, stay…" as her blue arms push the child into the small space and covers it with a damaged panel. _-blind panic_

Her hands work the flickering controls frantically, a voice repeats "Unknown ship, we are under attack by slavers, please help! My daughter…" a sobbing sound cuts the voice off and the image begins to swim. _-dispair, helplessness_

There is a flash and stabbing pain in his stomach and back. The image dims and swims for a moment before facing down, seeing two blue legs that try feebly to move. More pain, his blue hand comes into view covered in blood. The hand moves to cover the holes in his stomach and the image dims. _-fear and failure_

The image brightens, the pain constant and throbbing, a muffled thump is heard behind her. A shaky, pale blue hand comes into view and an orange projection pops up. A bloody blue hand comes up and selects the function. A mechanism whirs, the image dims. -...

A voice and a shape stumbles, falls into the image. The figure stands and fumbles with it's helmet before throwing it off. A new face, an alien. The image wavers for a moment as a voice starts to beg weakly to helm her daughter. The figure babbles and motions around. _-save her_

The figure kneels, she hears her voice desperately whispering, "Meld, we must meld. Save her" over and over. The blue hand touches the figure's head. A connection and they push the urgency of her daughter into the new person. _-urgency, save her!_

Sights, sounds, memories, nothing useful to help the newcomer save my daughter! Why?...new species, no language. *Thessian*, learn thessian. _Save her… -SAVE HER! -SAve….her. -save….._

* * *

Blood drips from his nose as the Asari's hand goes limp and he falls back against the opposite wall. His mind writhes in pain and his limbs twitch weakly as tears fall down his face as everything the alien woman had stabbed into his mind tries to both bury him in an abyss of loss and fear while it urges him on. He sees her eyes, still open and completely black. The expression on her face one of pain and failure.

SAVE HER! Echos through his mind and without meaning to he jerks shakily to his feet, stumbling through the ship he's never seen before but now knows perfectly.

He rushes down the hallways and around corners. He passes more bodies, flashes of memories of them pass over his mind but he pays no attention. He must get to the child.

He has to SAVE HER.

The last door doesn't open, he bangs the control and yells his frustration as he strikes it again and again. The memory of the tears rolling down the daughter's face as she begged her to not leave forces him to hit harder. Something breaks in his hand. He stops banging on the control and slams his face against the viewport in the door.

Where her daughter should have been he can only see twisted metal, sparking wires, and stars. Nothingness fills his heart as he hears himself muttering "No, no, no…."

Her face fills his mind as he turns and slides against the door and an anguished, drawn-out scream erupts from him.

His daughter, her daughter…..little Mira. He couldn't save her.

The sounds of wrenching sobs echo through the dead ship.

* * *

 **Hot damn, now that's a pile of steaming First Contact I-tell-you-hwhat! For some reason this is how I kept seeing Cmdr Marcus' first contact going. Getting mixed up in a raid and an panicked and broken meld that just does fuck-all for his mental well being. Tentative diagnosis of double jeapordy PTSD. Anyone want to guess how that's going to affect him going forward? I just hope I can frame the rest of his story well enough now that I threw him in this particular fire.**

 **I am going a bit slower with Marcus' first contact, chapter by chapter but it's hitting a pace I'm comfortable with. Hopefully it's working with all of you as well. I did write the first contact like the way I am because a.) a lot of them are Shanxi invasions shoehorned into the crossed-over world and that just doesn't make as much sense with the Elite world. and b.) The exploration in Elite feels like a more organic way of first contact happening to me. The slaver attack is really just to lend a large bit of emotional weight to it and it's just more interesting for me to write personally.**

 **Ok, I do hope I'm keeping you entertained, now - onward and I'd appreciate reviews!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:**

"Face-to-Face speech"

 _"Long-distance/comm channel speech"_

 _'Thoughts'_

{Language/words the listener doesn't understand}

 **Just wanted to clear that up.**

* * *

*thud*

"..."

*thud*

"..."

*THUD*

He squinted his eyes closed against the dull pain in his head. A pain that was relieved slightly when he hit his head back against the door he was slumped against. With his arms over his knees that were pulled up near his chest and his back against the door he almost looked like he was just resting for a moment. A look at his face as his head had bounced against door rhythmically would dissuade anyone from that assumption.

His eyes were squeezed shut and his face contorted in pain as he did his best to sift through the whirlwind of thoughts.

*thud*

Images of other Asari flashed by his mind's eye. Others she had known and respected. ' _It wasn't_ _me_ _dammit.'_

*thud*

Late night typing at a his terminal, reviewing the day's work imports to make sure the numbers were correct. He remembers squinting at the screen as he read a line before looking down to type again. His hands are blue and he remember looking up into the mirror- ' _No, no, no! I'm Commander Marcus Rein, I'm not blue, I'm not an alien...'_

*thud*

He's pacing in his apartment on the station. Had he given his notice too soon, he hadn't actually gotten word from the Pilot's Federation yet. If he wasn't accepted….a trilling alarm sounds and he's confused for a moment as he looks to his terminal. The trilling is shrill in his ear and he realizes it's coming from his arm. She lifts her arm and looks at the notice on her Omni-tool, frowning as the alarm trills again. ' _Argh!'_

*THUD*

*THUD*

 ***THUD***

"..."

His face twitches and he opens his eyes, glaring at the ceiling.

"What the in the hell has happened to me?"

Silence answers him.

"I've-" A trilling noise interrupts him and on a reflex he didn't have, he lifts his right arm and stares at his wrist for a moment before sneering, disgruntled.

Pushing himself up quickly he shakes his head before he hears it again, a soft trilling alarm of an Omni-tool notice was coming from somewhere nearby. He wipes his forehead with a shaky hand and slowly begins following the sound as it echos through the ship.

The section of the ship he was in didn't seem to be terribly large but he remembered nothing of the terrified scramble earlier. Trying to think of that panicked rush made his head hurt. He pauses, leaning against a wall at a T intersection and listens for a moment for the trilling sound. After a moment he hears it although now he could almost make out the sound of a voice right after the trilling. He could almost catch a few indistinct musical words but not enough to understand what was being said.

' _I was worried I wouldn't be able to understand the aliens and what do I get for that? One messed-up alien mind trick and a dead alien.'_ he barked a short, sardonic laugh, ' _But now I can understand Thessian!'_ Glancing up at some of the writing on the wall he saw it was still gibberish however.

Wearily pushing off the wall, he walked after where he thought the sound was coming from, ignoring the Salarian body in the way, frowning slightly as he stepped past, realizing he knew what a Salarian is.

' _Yeah, all for the low, low price of all this other bits of...her along with it.'_ the trilling followed by the almost recognizable words break his train of thought and pain stabs into his head for a moment causing him to sway mid-step before catching himself. He takes a moment, ignoring the words as hard as he can.

' _No, I don't fucking care what you're saying, it's not English and I'm not a damn Asari...right, let's get that turned off now_.'

He passes through the doorway of the room he hears the trilling alarm coming from and pauses, his brief moment of exasperated anger evaporates as he sees the body of the Asari. A feeling of dread and loss washes over him and he kneels next to her. Her head is slumped over and facing down slightly but he can still make out a sliver her black eyes under her brow as they stare at nothing.

The trilling noise and the voice echo through the room but the sound washes over him again as he struggles to keep himself from breaking down again, too lost in the struggle to control himself to pay attention to the words.

"I don't even know what your name was you know that?" His hand wipes at his eye as a tear tries to form with a prickling sensation in the corner of his eyes.

His gloved hand made a soft, gritty sound, the salt from the tears that had flowed unabated earlier had dried. He had almost lost himself after he saw the inside of that ruined room but he had managed to pull his mind out of the tangled anguish that hers had left as she died. Her memories were still there though, boiling just under the surface his thoughts.

"The dying was the worst part wasn't it? You didn't even know if Mira survived or not."

*trill*trill*trill* " _This is the shuttle of the private vessel, Soft Wind, to any survivors. Do you read?"_

His gaze snapped to the glowing orange band around the Asari's wrist, finally noticing it as it flared slightly as it trilled. It took a moment for the words to make their way through his surprise for him to actually understand what was being said.

His hands quickly reached for the band before pausing a moment. ' _What the hell am I going to say here exactly? Hi! You don't know my species but I chased off some slavers and then a blue telepathic woman took her and my mind through a blender and died?'_ He struggled with that while watching the device.

The trilling sound and message repeated and with some trepidation he pulled the band off gently and stood up. Turning the thin, wide band over once he slipped the band around his wrist like it had been on hers. Straightening his back, he studied the band for a moment before one of her memories floated to the surface and he made a fist away from himself and lifted his wrist parallel to the ground.

The orange projection sprung up around his wrist and the notice for an incoming connection was blinking in Thessian. Before it could ring again he shrugged and passed his finger over the notification, feeling slight resistance and opened the connection.

Bringing the band close to his face, "...This is Commander Marcus Rein of the...ah, Pilot's Federation. There are no survivors on this ship."

He glanced down at the projection for a moment before grimacing, "Well, I'm on the ship but I'm not part of it's crew. I chased the slavers off...I'm Human? Not from around here which makes this first contact."

Silence stretched for a moment, he shook his arm and poked at the screen thinking he hadn't gotten something right before the voice came over the line again.

" _I hear you and am showing you registered as_ _Elcor Merchant ship, Freighter 419. I hear you but cannot understand you, do you need assistance?"_

Bringing the projection up nearer to his face, "This. is. Commander. Marcus. Rein. I. am. Not. part. Of. this. Crew. I'm…" He paused as his arm drifted down and he looked down at the dead Asari and then over to the other dead alien in the room before realization dawned on him.

The line cracked briefly before the voice came back, " _Freighter 419, your translator or transmitter seems to be broken, I hear you but I cannot understand you. I am moving to the airlock to assis...t"_

There was a short silence before he heard a whispered, " _What is that…"_

' _Shit, Lucy! She's still right next to the airlock, go figure the new alien would need to go there but then again the shuttle bay was-'_ With a flinch he cut that thought off before using his mindcom to check his connection with Lucy and sure enough, it was still holding position. Then he realized that he had been rambling to an another alien in English. Putting two and two together that while he could understand Thessian, the alien wouldn't understand him speaking English.

He didn't really want to speak Thessian, he had been trying to push everything the Asari had jabbed into his mind down deep so he could go about his life using the go-to coping mechanism.

Pretend it didn't happen, denial, and self-delusion. People were good at that sort of thing.

' _Except now what do I do? Another alien is right outside and trying to talk. I'm pretty sure I could get to my ship and get away and this new alien would never be the wiser but isn't this the thing that all explorers look for?.'_ He blinked a few times as he thought, _'This is something new though, it's got that going for it.'_

The gears in his mind turned for a moment longer before he glanced back at the band on his wrist. The Omni-tool. With a turn of his wrist the projection popped back up, showing the connection was still open.

He brought it up near his face and licked his lips, not realizing how dry his mouth had gotten or thirsty he was. Now though, he concentrated on what and how he wanted to say next.

* * *

She stared nervously at the strange ship as her shuttle held position a few hundred meters away from the damaged freighter with the other ship near it. The garbled words that had come over the comms moments ago now echoing in her head as she tried to make sense of things. She gingerly tapped a few commands on the console and a small window popped up with a magnified view of the ship and her eyes widened slightly.

She racked her brain trying to recognize it but it was just too _different_. Not just the decals and writing which didn't look like anything she'd seen in her centuries as a commando and under Matriarch Benezia. No, that wasn't all that was off about the ship. It was the design, the feel of the ship, a hundred little things as she studied the image.

Concern bubbled up as the thought that this might be first contact with someone occurred to her. The tail end of a slaver attack was just about the worse first impression to make. Right above actually just flat out attacking the newcomers but what she had figured out of what happened here was a close second.

She shook her head, ' _Get a hold of yourself Shiala, it's probably just some custom private yacht.'_

Sitting up in her chair she keyed in the commands and her shuttle moved closer to the ships towards the airlock of the freighter when a blue flicker from one of the circular indents on the strange ship caught her attention.

She squinted and as she reached out and expanded the magnified window of the strange ship, focusing on the circle when she saw it again. Small but intense blue puffs could be seen coming from raised circular vents along the strange ship and confusion furrowed her brow.

' _Why is that ship venting….'_ she stopped the shuttle within a hundred meters of the two ships and looked at the navigation readout on her console. Watching the readout of the Mass Effect core subtly adjusting it's output to keep the shuttle in the position she stopped it at. With a few more commands she focused a few sensors on the strange ship and saw the distance shift slightly back and forth as the blue lights flared briefly across the strange ship at regular intervals.

"RCS jets, is something wrong that it doesn't use a Mass Effect field to keep position? But what sort of ship is designed with RCS anymore?" Turning to the sensor console she began tapping in the commands for a more detailed scan when the comm channel keyed open again.

" _Soft Wind, this is {Commander Marcus Rein}. I am not a survivor of the crew of this ship. I'm {human}. I came across this ship being attacked and intervened. After the slavers were gone, I came aboard to look for survivors."_

" _..."_

" _There was one survivor but they...died soon after I found them."_

Shiala's mind immediately started racing, trying to decide on the best way to answer when a thought popped in her head.

Clearing her throat she keyed to transmit, "When you say {human} what do you mean? I've not heard of that group and the transmission sounded garbled when you said who you were. I responded to the freighter's distress beacon which means that there will be more ships on the way to provide assistance as well."

She hoped the subtle reminder of the possibility of more ships arriving would buy her some time to make sense of the situation as she moved closer to the two ships. She stopped within ten meters of the two ships, spinning her shuttle to face away with the back hatch facing between the two, ready to leave in a moment just in case.

The comm blinked with a video connection request and she tapped the command to accept for two-way video. A window popped up, briefly showing static before clearing up. What showed on screen caused her mind to go blank for a moment. Both of them stared as she became unnerved at the face she was looking at.

The similarities to an Asari were astonishing and she could almost imagine mistaking the face for an Asari at a glance in a dark room. Over the clear video connection she had however, there was no confusing it. The color of the skin was far from anything an Asari would have, not to mention the color of the eyes. Strange protrusions of skin could be seen on each side of the figure's head. Short dark brown fur sat messily where any Asari's cartilage ridges would be on the top of the head. Even with the exposure to all the other species in Citadel space, the close but not exact resemblance the figure possessed to her species was more unsettling than someone entirely alien.

As close as the figure's face was to an Asari's the look on the figure's face seemed haggard as they spoke, "{ _Human} is not my group, my group is technically the Pilot's Federation. {Human} is my species."_

With that confirming that this was a first contact, she glanced down, flustered, as she tapped a few readouts to give her time to think before she looked up suddenly, "You're speaking Thessian! If you're a new species and this is first contact, how do you speak it at all if there were no survivors on that ship?"

The human spoke again, that their lips syncing up to the words being said only added to the strangeness of the situation. That meant they were actually speaking Thessian and not just having it translated.

" _There was a survivor, she was Asari. We….well, she melded with me."_ There was a pause and a look of what Shiala thought looked like hopelessness flashed across the human's face as they rubbed one of their eyes with the palm of their hand.

" _I got Thessian and….other things_ _ **stabbed**_ _into my mind during the meld."_ the figure put their hand down and looked back at the camera, _"My_ _name is Marcus by the way...and frankly I have no idea where to go from here. I just saw a signal pop up when I was exploring, I dropped out to find a ship being attacked."_ The image started to waver as Marcus explained and became more animated.

" _So I'm surprised right?! This far out of the bubble and I find other ships and they're attacking each other. Then, then one of them starts shooting at me!"_ At that Shiala realized the situation was worse than she thought as Marcus continued, becoming more agitated as the image began to jostle around.

" _I start seeing rounds ping off my shields as a channel opens from this big ship and I hear a voice, someone scrambling on the comms for help, I couldn't understand them but the desperation was clear. I've heard those same calls before."_ The image was bobbing now as Marcus seemed to pace and look around for something while keeping the Omni-tool positioned to keep him in frame.

" _So I defend myself, I shoot the small ship down even though it's darting around like a deranged, boxy {Eagle}. Oh, but no, then my sensors show something else, a bigger ship coming my way and as my luck would have it, that one starts shooting at me too!"_ The video feed swings wildly for a few seconds as Marcus seems to gesture wildly before moving to grab something Shiala couldn't see.

After a few moments she hears a muted click and Marcus comes back into the frame, now with a helmet on, his gaze intense behind the clear face-plate. He caught her shocked expression and seemed to force himself to blink a few times then take a deep breath, shaking his head.

His head tilts slightly in thought before he looks back to her, reaching up to tap the helmet, " _In my rush before I forgot some things, I am really, really glad you all breathe the same atmosphere as we do or I'd just be another corpse in this ship."_

Shiala was at a loss for words, this had spiraled out far beyond anything she had ever expected to deal with and what this human, Marcus, had just described was exactly the first contact situations that she hoped hadn't happened. There was some good however, the human was talking to her. Talking was so much better than shooting.

Taking a deep breath, Shiala gathered her thoughts, "Marcus, my name is Shiala. I'm on my way back from a mission for my Matriarch and I...I'll be honest with you, I have no idea what to do here either."

At that Marcus let out a strained laugh, " _That's good news actually, that's a reasonable reaction to this. That means there's a good chance this isn't all just me going crazy!"_

She smiled, if only for his sake and hoped that their species were close enough alike that it was reassuring, "I do know who I can get in touch with to help with all this though. Help get us all past this and into a proper first contact."

The image shifted, his face no longer centered as the arm the Omni-tool Marcus was wearing dropped down. She could still see him in the corner of the frame look around him with an unreadable expression on his face. He didn't seem lost, just thoughtful and she let the silence stretch on, not wanting to push the situation. She remembered Benezia's lessons on dealing with someone you didn't want dead when they might become frantic. She knew she was using her own personal experience with known alien mannerisms but she didn't have anything better to go on. She might run across a huge cultural difference making assumptions but it seemed to be working out so far.

He broke the silence as she watched the feed sway rhythmically as Marcus started walking through the ship, almost whispering to himself, _"Great, because I'm the perfect person for this sort of thing...I could still just leave..._ _"_

He stopped and looked around him and she took the chance to interrupt his train of thought, "There's more than slaver attacks in our space, this is actually known but unregulated territory. In the majority of our space this doesn't happen. The Asari have met other races as well. We're all part of the Citadel Council, the governing body over..."

The video feed was suddenly framing Marcus' face again, closer than it had been before as he studied her intently before the video shifted and she saw a line of bodies of different bodies, all missing their heads.

She recognized it from some of the more unsavory places she had gone as a commando. These people had been getting ready to be taken as slaves and from the look and position of the bodies, the dead man switch had tripped.

Her pause didn't go unnoticed as she heard Marcus speaking again, " _I know, saw the bodies before I found the Asari dying."_

 _"..."_

 _"What is the Citadel Council? Is that far from here?"_

Grateful for small steps in the right direction she looked at the other consoles and then behind her in the small shuttle. The small, one person shuttle was hardly a place to sit and speak with someone in any comfort and she didn't want to suggest meeting on the freighter Marcus was on.

"I could explain it to you but I feel it would be best to do it face to face. My shuttle fits me with little room to spare and I imagine you want to get off that ship. Would it be acceptable to meet on your ship?"

Marcus shook his head and he seemed to hop up and down before answering distractedly, " _No...not my ship. There's a room on this ship we can talk in and I can decide if I don't just want to leave. If we can sit down and talk it might make this whole situation less surreal."_

Not at all what she was expecting but she took it as a show of faith that neither of them would be able to just leave. Besides she was sure they were both improvising and had no real training for first contact, "I'll come aboard then, can you meet me near the airlock? I'll need to talk with my Matriarch and let her know what is happening as well. We can talk again once I'm on board."

With a nod Marcus cut the feed and Shiala fell back in her chair and exhaled, taking a moment to relax and think. She reached up and rubbed her forehead, feeling out of her depth with what was happening..

A look of trepidation crossed her face as she sat up and started setting up the most secure connection she had with Matriarch Benezia while mumbling to herself, "Matriarch, I'm going to have to drop this in your hands, Goddess help me this is whole thing is screwed sideways."

* * *

Benezia smiled in an understanding but condescending way that her and other Asari Matriarchs eventually learn to perfect after the first seven or eight centuries of their lives. The gesture was lost on the Hanar she was speaking with though. She was sure it would carry over in her voice as she worked to convince the Hanar to allow her daughter to the Prothean site on the planet.

The Hanar's bio-luminescence flashed as they reiterated their complaint, "This one humbly must decline your invitation of your daughter's presence at the Enkindler's shrine. This one feels she may be too young to appreciate their gifts as the Hanar do."

' _So it's the same here as well, her theories about the Protheans are doing her no favors...still. She is my daughter.'_ Her thoughts and exasperation did not reach her expression or voice as she gave a subdued, thoughtful nod.

"I had actually hoped the Illuminated Primacy's views would be a positive influence-" She was interrupted, one of her aides was being rather overt in their bid for her attention. So much so that it could only mean one of two things: either the matron was not informed of the importance of the call she was currently on, or there was something her carefully picked and trained aide felt was more important.

The interruption only lasted a brief moment, hardly noticeable to most but the Hanar would have picked up on it undoubtedly.

"However, if you feel the Illuminated Primacy would be unable to educate my young daughter, I understand. Perhaps it is best, thank you." She inclined her head respectfully before stepping away, the call disconnecting just as the Hanar began to speak again. The Hanar would find they would be running into issues in the near future with their efforts in Citadel space.

"Matriarch, I apologize for the interruption but Shiala is requesting your attention with great urgency. She is using the most secure protocols she has available to her."

That piqued Benezia's interest, she trusted Shiala to know when such a thing was necessary and if it would require her full attention. Showing no outward sign of her thoughts she nodded, prompting her aide to bow and leave. She went to her quarters where she could take the call securely.

The door closed behind her as she passed through the threshold, reaching out and smoothly tapping in the commands to secure her room on a panel inside the door. Moments later, dormant security hardware came online, adding layers of encryption and obfuscation as the same thing happened in the shuttle Shiala was in.

Seconds later, much longer than connections usually took to establish -even across the galaxy, the lights dimmed in her room and a projection of Shiala seated in the shuttle flickered into place.

 _"Honored Matriarch, I have news of possible galactic importance."_ Benezia stood straighter at that, an eyebrow raising in question. She knew Shiala was not known for overestimating events or ever reporting before she knew for a fact she needed to. In her mind, Benezia decided to clear her schedule for the next few weeks. Galactic events were never short affairs.

"What have the Terminus colonies been doing Shiala?"

 _"Not them Matriarch, that all went as you wanted, no."_ Shiala paused and took a deep breath before reaching forward and sending a command. Moments later the files arrived and opened, some familiar, the damaged Elcor freighter and the wreckage of a Batarian 'privateer' shuttle.

Those pictures Benezia simply glanced over, the ones that caught her attention were much less mundane. Images of a strange ship and a still-frame of a face that was uncannily similar to an Asari along with a few short video clips and audio logs.

 _"Matriarch Benezia, I have been involved in a first contact on the border of Terminus and Council space. I am utterly out of my depth."_

Benezia's composure broke as her hands began moving across the controls swiftly as she sifted through what Shiala had sent until she came to a video clip.

" _There was a survivor, she was Asari. We….well, she melded with me. I got Thessian and….other things..._ _ **stabbed**_ _into my mind. My name is Marcus by the way...and frankly I have no idea where to go from here."_ Benezia paused the video after that, the implications running through her mind as she stared intensely at the frozen image of Marcus, attempting to commit the face to memory.

Her voice echoed with every second of her near millenia of life as she shifted her gaze back to Shiala, the matron flinching on reflex.

 **"** Tell me everything, _NOW._ **"**

* * *

 **So I'm shooting for posting around weekends, Friday - Sunday.**

 **Hopefully you're entertained!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: So this chapter just did not want to come out. I had a hell of a time getting past the first thousand words. Luckily I managed and the story won't get bogged down by this chapter anymore. I'd like to know what y'all think though as I'm a little shaky on some of the chapter. I kept hitting scenes where I could go on an exposition fest but didn't want to yet so I had to deflect it. I'm curious if the deflection was believable.**

 **So yea, let me know what you think and thanks for reading!**

* * *

Marcus leaned against the wall as he idly watched the inner door of the airlock while he waited. Having been able to clear his head some after he got out of the area of the ship the dead had been in. Now he waited while he flipped through his mindcom, checking the status of Lucy a few more times than strictly necessary. Trying to decide what he should do after talking with this other Asari, Shiala.

' _Who do I contact? I don't have a particular desire to land this in just one of the big three. Frankly I'm not sure how anyone will react to this.'_

Crossing his arms and tapping his finger against his elbow, he started to realize how big this all could be just beyond him.

' _I have enough reputation with the Federation, Empire, and Alliance but if I just go to one I may very well be killed to keep it quiet.'_ Memories of various Thargoid sites and a faded "Aegis" symbol came to mind.

' _So how do I get all three governments to listen?_ _Can_ _I get all three to listen?'_ He heard a muffled clunking sound and a screen next to the airlock door displayed a progress notice.

With a sigh that was almost a growl he pushed off the wall, "I'll have to figure that out after this. After all," an image of the Asari's black eyes staring at nothing flashed in his mind and he felt himself get pale.

"I'm not letting her get close enough to touch me."

He heard the airlock cycle, the machinery running in the wall until the pressure was equal. There was a pause and he half expected to hear a thump of her hitting the floor when the gravity turned on but was disappointed as the door slid open.

His thoughts paused for a moment as he regarded her, noticing the near perfect similarity to a human woman until you looked at her head. She had her helmet clasped on her hip so he was able to see her face unobstructed. The strange head ridges and no ears were the biggest thing that pulled his eyes before she stepped forward.

' _It almost seems like a prank or a low-budget sci-fi show. Blue alien woman.'_ He ended that thought as Shiala moved closer to him, stopping just as she began to get close enough to touch and he tensed up unconsciously.

Putting a hand over where a human had their heart, she bowed slightly, "Marcus, I wish we could have met under better circumstances but I am glad to meet you nonetheless."

Shifting nervously on his feet, "Me too Shiala, I can honestly say I'd have loved if we had met under better circumstances too."

An awkward pause passed between the two before Marcus broke it, holding his hand out towards one of the paths.

"There's something of a conference room this way we can sit and talk in." Shiala nodded and Marcus led her down the hallway through a few twists and turns before coming into the room. A large table circular table in the center of the room surrounded by chairs. Various equipment on one wall suggested that this had been the mess hall for the ship. A closer look at the devices showed types of food dispensers.

Either way, they walked in and Shiala took a seat. Marcus took a seat that wasn't quite directly across from her but was still a few arm-lengths away.

"We can't change how we met but now that we're here, I suppose we can trade some questions. I would like to know about this Citadel Council. Different species working together, seems like a hell of a coincidence that it would be possible."

Shiala seemed surprised for a moment before clearing her throat, "Why would it be such a coincidence?"

"Well, the chances of meeting other species that were roughly equivalent in terms of tech in the galaxy at large seems….I don't know. Just not at all likely. We've encountered other life but they're too different to really tell much of anything about them."

Shiala perked up at that, the fact that they had encountered other intelligent life before this was a good thing. Even if that life was much more strange, after all the Rachni were nearly inscrutable during the entire war with them.

"So this isn't your species first contact, just first time with us?" Her shoulders slumped a bit, "We've made a terrible impression then."

"Well, better than our first contact but yeah, pretty bad." Shiala didn't know what to think about that.

They both had nothing to say for a moment after that, the situation weighing heavily on the room for a moment.

"I was able to contact my superior, she is on her way as fast as she can travel. I don't want to try to get into a bunch of questions over my head so how about we just ask about each other instead?"

That caused Marcus to sit up, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, "Well, I'd be interested to hear how this 'Citadel Council' works. I can't imagine how strange that's got to be with different species."

" Well, it helps that every race we've encountered have also encountered Prothean ruins…"

* * *

The bridge of the Asari cruiser was somber with a distinct undercurrent of excitement. The crew worked with more care than they normally would which given the minimum experience of two centuries of any individual, the best possible speed was being made to their destination.

The constant hum of the ship and the efficient movements of the crew were interrupted as Matriarch Benezia's personal cruiser dropped out of FTL to line up with the next relay. The approach charted to give a few minutes for their comms system to send and receive any information that was waiting for her.

Seconds after dropping from FTL the comm beeped just as Benezia had expected. When she had finished speaking with Shiala she had sent everything to the Council and explained that she would be making all haste to the location in question. Better to get the right expectations as quickly as possible for a first contact after the unmitigated disaster it had started as.

Without a word she stepped off the bridge into her quarters. After the door lock and security had engaged, the comm opened and three holograms sprung up from the emitters.

The Asari Councilor was someone she had backed for the position centuries ago and with whom she had no regrets having done so. Councilor Irissa was the perfect image of Asari wisdom and grace that the galaxy needed.

The Turian Councilor was standing at nearly perfect military parade rest, back straight with hands clasped behind his back although his stance was one that was imperceptibly relaxed in a way that let anyone looking at him know he was in command. Exactly what anyone would look for when seeing the Council's primary military and policing force. Councilor Sparatus was new but he was performing well so far.

The Salarian Councilor was more of an enigma as they all tended to be. Most certainly under the control of the leading Dalatrass on Sur'Kesh but with an independence born from their time in the STG that always made for an interesting mix for a male in the position. He was almost due to retire though. After this first contact would certainly see a change in Salarain Councilors. For now however, the never-to-be-taken-at-face-value but fair dealings with Councilor Bursik would continue.

Benezia bowed her head at the Councilors, she may be older than all of them by a good margin but they were the Council and deserved some measure of respect.

Given the information she had sent to them however it did not surprise her in the least that Councilor Bursik jumped straight into it.

"Matriarch, first contact is best left to a proper diplomatic team. That you sent us the information your follower sent you and then just decide you will make contact is not in the spirit of this Council."

Irissa shifted ever so slightly with discomfort at that, something that did not go unnoticed by Benezia. Whether from annoyance at the Salarian speaking first or annoyance that she would be forced to agree with the blunt statement was unknown.

"Councilors, when I heard from Shiala as to what had transpired, directly on the border of Citadel space, I felt this was the best course of action. You were informed and an experienced diplomat is on her way to deal with this first contact."

A few seconds passed as Councilor Bursik and Benezia simply held eye contact. Finally broken by Bursik with a sigh.

"Very well, you would have been one of the first we contact for this regardless. I would have preferred to have a Spectre accompany you however. That may be a border system but it is on the Terminus side of our border."

Sparatus spoke up at that, "The seventh Turian patrol fleet is being diverted there with all haste. They will hold on our side of the relay but be in position to jump should anything happen. No need to add any more guns to this first contact but they'll be there if needed."

A small worry that Benezia had whenever the Turian councilor changed over was alleviated at that. Sometimes it seemed the Turian councilor wanted nothing but war with anyone that wasn't the Council. That the new Councilor Sparatus had taken that stance during this event reminded Benezia why the Turians were trusted with the Council's protection. They knew their duty and the limits of it.

Council Irissa's subdued smile said she felt the same, "Which we are grateful for Sparatus. Now Benezia, how are you going to address this…" She looked down at something in front of her, "Commander Marcus?"

Benezia had put a lot of thought into that. If he had really shown up during a pirate and the subsequent melding with a dying victim of that attack she would need to do a lot of damage control.

"Much of that will be decided by him Councilors. I know the situation up to when I departed but not much else. I trust Shiala to not make mistakes even if she is not trained but I have no plan other than to make contact and introduce ourselves properly."

Councilor Irissa was satisfied but she saw Bursik stiffen at the mention of no plan. Not much of a surprise there. Sparatus was impassive however, seemingly disinterested in the minutia of the first contact beyond the security that he had routed there.

"When will you arrive on-site Matriarch? The patrol fleet will be there within a few hours, I suspect hours after you have arrived so there will be a time you are without immediate protection."

"We have will jump this relay and cross the system to the last jump so a few more hours."

"Good, first and foremost we need to find out where this Commander Marcus' race is from, the fact that they still use reaction control systems to keep their ship in a stable position suggests that they are still early in their development."

"I will make no assumptions Councilor, the Salarians can go over everything afterwards but I will not confine myself to the assumption they are primitive. There is nothing anywhere near that system that suggests that there is another civilization within range of early mass effect engines."

Sparatus looked thoughtful at that, "That is true and curious. That they do not simply manipulate mass effect fields in the same manner as us is something to investigate, Benezia is correct. There is little survey evidence of any system near there that could support life, much less a space faring species that we've not detected. We do keep very close eye on the terminus borders more often than not."

"Hmph, very well. In the absence of evidence I will ask that you ascertain everything you can. Shiala's description of the newcomer's ship suggest frigate size. Regardless of where they come from, we need to know why there were in that system."

"I assure you, that is all on my list of questions. I do intend to find out as much as possible. That he can already speak Thessian will help."

Councilor Irissa cut in, "Benezia, we are holding you up from continuing your journey at this point. We will need to think of the steps after this as well, inviting Commander Marcus' species leaders to the Citadel for a formal introduction and integration. We have this kept under the strictest of confidences at this point as we are unsure of what will come of it."

Benezia nodded, she knew all of this of course, she had been a diplomat before Irissa had decided to stop getting shot at in the Eclispse a few centuries ago. That it was being said out loud was simply for the benefit of getting it out in front of the others and for the records.

"Should all go well we look forward to an exciting meeting with this new species. Now, if no one has anything else…" The Asari Councilor looked expectantly at the other two in a way that appeared inviting but somehow left no doubt that she expected there to be nothing else. The other two did not disappoint, signaling they each had nothing.

With a nod, Benezia dismissed herself as well as conveying her thanks to Irissa for the timely window to exit.

"Thank you Councilors, I will have something for the Council soon."

The holograms flickered out of existence and the security in her quarters relaxed, lights brightening and the door unlocking. With no wasted movements she turned and moved back onto the bridge. The crew all turned to her quietly and looked at her expectantly.

"We will continue, Navigation, take us through the relay to our destination with all haste."

With that the crew moved into action, an undercurrent of excitement in the air.

* * *

Marcus just sat, silent and nearly slack-jawed looking at Shiala. The enormity of what she had told him about her Citadel Council sinking in. Ten separate races of nearly equivalent technical and societal progress meeting. Not only meeting but working together for thousands of years. If not for what he had experienced already it would be too much to actually believe.

" _Oh yeah, I'm about seven pay grades out of my depth here."_

"I'm going to have a hell of a time explaining this to anyone back in Human space Shiala."

Shiala sat across from him, her helmet off and a cup of tea she had made earlier held in front of her, the half cup of tea sitting cold in it. She had managed to talk about Citadel space for a few hours, Marcus asking a few questions occasionally but really it had been her just going on and on. To her credit she had seemed a bit embarrassed about it a few times but Marcus' attempts to add things to the conversation were a bit stilted after she had continued her explanation.

She had the good sense to look a bit embarrassed after he said that. She apparently had someone to call that was right nearby, or near enough they'd be arriving soon and it'd only been a few hours. He'd have to first, head back a few thousand light years, then figure out who in the hell he'd even bring this to.

He had some contacts in the Federation and the Empire but for all the work he had done it was basically just for access to a few systems and the permits to buy the faction-specific line of ships. Still, it did give him a channel he may exploit.

Shiala seemed to pick up on his confusion with the situation. "Marcus, I am sure there is someone you can speak to in your government. There must be some protocol for alien contact?"

"Well, there's a lot of contact with alien life. Just primitive life, single-celled life, animals, weirdly intelligent plant life, Thar-"

Then it occurred to him, Professor Palin! Sure, he'd pissed off the Federation and the Empire but everyone knew of him, even those in the Alliance knew about him and if he talked about aliens, people listened.

"So there is a way for your species government to deal with alien life, even if to just catalogue it?"

"Well, we've actually got three major governments but there's a few ways I can go about getting them all in one place. In fact, I think that I may know just the person for it. Thanks Shiala, I was getting worried that I'd not be taken seriously but I got it now."

Shiala just blinked a few times, slightly confused at apparently being the catalyst for his train of thought without actually having a clue as to what he was alluding to.

"Wait, three governments?!"

It was that moment that her Omni-tool began chirping urgently again, it pulsing on her wrist brightly and interrupting their conversation. Immediately she opened it and felt a wave of relief pass over her.

"Marcus, good news! Matriarch Benezia is here with the blessing of the Citadel Council to make actual diplomatic contact."

She looked up at him and saw his attentive gaze on her, "Er, well, not that I didn't enjoy speaking to you about the Council and Council space…"

With a slight chuckle and glancing around the room absentmindedly, "It's ok, I'll be relieved once I can pass this off to someone else on my end too."

Shiala nodded and read the rest of the message Benezia had sent her, ordering her to bring Marcus, if he is willing, onto Benezia's cruiser.

"I've been told to ask you to accompany me to my Matriarch's ship. It is much, much better equipped to receive you. Should you be comfortable with boarding another alien ship."

Marcus hesitated, he had managed to put the fact that he was on a ship with a murdered crew out of his mind for the time being but he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to board another ship if it was Asari. He was sitting a distance from Shiala for a reason and being on a ship with only her race set his nerves irrationally on edge.

' _Still, it may be for the best, their artificial gravity is nice.'_ He looked sat back in his chair and tapped the table a few times before picking up a small piece of metal and dropping it a few inches off the table.

"I suppose I can manage, will it be just Asari on the ship?" He looked up at Shiala and suddenly felt like an idiot.

"Not that there's anything really wrong with that! Just, I'd like to meet a few more species than just Asari today."

He tried his best joking smirk, feeling foolish the entire time, "Preferably when they're not shooting at me."

' _Good job, I sounded racist and then recovered by making it sound like I expect them to just be shooting at me. I really need to spend more time talking to people if I'm going to be contacting a bunch of aliens.'_

To his relief, Shiala either did not notice or simply decided to not comment on what he thought were faux paus. Instead she simply nodded as she stood up.

"The crew is mostly Asari as it is my Matriarch's personal cruiser and as such tends to be predominantly Asari crew. Though she is usually involved in diplomatic affairs and as such has a number of other species on her crew. If I remember correctly we have a Quarian crew member even in our engineering."

"They're the ones with the AI rebellion right?" He mentally kicked himself again, that was a hell of a way to downplay a race that lost their home planet to AI that rebelled against them.

"...Yes, the Geth. My Matriarch does not view them as the rest of the galaxy tends to. She still remembers them as they were before their mistake and does not allow that prejudice sway her decisions when selecting her crew."

Shiala stood next to the door for a second before Marcus realized that they would be heading towards the shuttle she had. He doubted they would be boarding her matriarch's ship the way he got on this one. He hurriedly got up and moved just outside arm's length from Shiala before they both made their way to the shuttle.

"Well, I suppose it's further down the rabbit hole then."

"What was that Marcus?"

"Nothing, just nervous."

He could hear her confident smile even though she was walking ahead of him and he couldn't see her face. Her Matriarch was near and she seemed to have confidence in the situation again.

"You needn't be worried Marcus, Matriarch Benezia knows what to do, you don't need to worry about things now."

* * *

Benezia stood at the entrance of the shuttle bay watching Shiala's shuttle move gracefully into the bay through the blue sheen of the kinetic barrier keeping the atmosphere in. A Turian and Salarian lieutenant standing by behind and to each side of her with a few of her Asari followers as well. She had requested Hon Tolan vas Geedor to accompany her but he had asked to stay in engineering. Apparently his scans of the newcomer's ship were exciting enough that he didn't want to actually meet the new race yet.

As the shuttle settled she looked to one side at one of her Matrons, "You are to discretely take the shuttle back to the Elcor freighter and investigate what happened. Get their names, the manifest, everything you can. At the very least we can inform next of kin and arrange for proper burials."

The Matron bowed her head in assent as they saw the door of the shuttle open. Benezia's attention focused as Shiala and the Human, Commander Marcus stepped out. She moved forward to greet them, Shiala stood in front of her and bowed respectfully at the waist.

"Honored Matriarch, I am glad you came so soon." Benezia smiled at her, for everything that had happened, the Matron had done well.

"This is a matter that required it Shiala. Now, I believe this is the newcomer? The Human Commander Marcus?"

The helmet he was wearing did little to obscure the human's face although he had stopped a small distance away and his stance, if he were an Asari, would be standoffish. His one-piece suit was a dark green color with lines along contours of his musculature. Insignia of what appeared to be a stylized bird on his shoulders were just about the only markings beyond a few lights on his wrist.

The distance he seemed to keep from her wasn't very surprising given that she knew an Asari on that freighter had melded with him in a moment of desperation, that much could be understood and very easily forgiven. She watched him for a brief moment as his eyes met hers for a moment before roaming around the shuttle bay. The soft curves and blue tones seen in most Asari ship construction seemed to interest him as she saw him seem to mutter something to himself though through his helmet she didn't hear what he had said.

As his gaze moved to her Salarian and Turian lieutenants she was amused to see his eyes widen slightly and dart between the two. She was sure the culture shock was a lot to take in.

The entire glance took a mere moment but she had noted it all and was happy to see him seem to compose himself, standing a bit straighter.

"Yes, I am, Human and Commander Marcus Rein. You're Matriarch Benezia that Shiala has mentioned?"

"I am, thank you for coming. If you would follow me we can move to a room much more comfortable."

With a shrug and a nod, Marcus followed Benezia, the Salarian and Turian following him as the doors slid shut behind them.

Marcus had to admit, the chair was very comfortable. It felt like sitting on a cloud because if what he felt when he ran his hand under his thigh briefly, he wasn't actually sitting on anything. Just floating an inch or so above the cushion. It felt _and looked_ amazing. Which if this was a diplomatic ship that would make sense. The few politicians he had shuttled around the bubble had always needed the better cabins. He'd have to remember that since this ship made Lucy look like a garbage skiff.

After the tea was served, the steaming cup in front of him, he picked it up and smelled it. The smell wouldn't have been out of place in an Imperial meeting, the fragrant floral scent that wafted up from the cup was oddly familiar. It did a little to calm him to know that there were some more similarities between them.

"Well, I do appreciate your hospitality Matriarch and we can agree that it is good that at least one of us has the right people for this first contact."

"How far away are the right people for your race? There are no settled worlds that we are aware of near this system."

"Anyone that would could do more then drink your tea and have a chat, anyone with any sort of authority, is about seven and a half thousand light years away from here. I'm really just a freelance explorer out here right now."

Benezia raised an eye and the small shifting of the others in the room didn't go unnoticed. "Seven and a half thousand light years? That's quite the distance, your race includes the distance traveled by relay then as well?"

Marcus felt the question was a fairly innocent one but was a bit confusing. Then again, that would be expected considering even if they looked generally like a human and weren't a weird pile of tentacles or something, they were still aliens.

"Relay? I'm not sure what a relay is, I made that distance in my ship. It's not entirely stripped down but I still make a good thirty or forty light years a jump."

Marcus immediately knew that he had hit on something when everyone else in the room tensed up. Benezia's eyes widened and her hands holding the tea froze.

"I…..I'm guessing your species don't routinely travel thousands of light years?"

That seemed to snap Benezia out of it, she cleared her throat quietly and set her tea down.

"No, we do. The relays afford us that ability. They provide the means to move between the clusters in our space but our ships are not so capable for a variety of reasons."

' _Alright, so they need a relay to move far distances. Why did they all get so tense though?'_

The Salarian in the room seemed like they could no longer stay quiet and proceeded to start talking, Marcus assumed they were questions but considering it wasn't in Thessian but rather whatever language his species spoke, it came across as a good approximation of two frogs fighting on a wet balloon.

"What."

Benezia frowned slightly at the Salarian's display, "Lieutenant, he does not have a translator. He only understands Thessian."

More squeaking and croaking.

"I haven't gotten to giving him any of that. Now please sit back down."

The Salarian sat down and Benezia smiled apologetically, "He is enthusiastic and gets ahead of himself at times."

Marcus waved it off as nonchalantly as possible, "Not a problem, it happens I suppose."

Another pause in the conversation started to stretch on before Marcus made a decision.

"Look, I realize that there's probably all sorts of protocol and things to talk about, things not to talk about. Knowledge exchange, all that sort of stuff."

Benezia nodded, "Yes, we have a first contact package with languages and information about our civilizations. We've refined first contacts in the two millennium since the Council was formed."

"Right, see that's just it, I'm an explorer and a fairly accomplished one at that but I've never come across other space-faring life. Not even any sentient or sapient that I'm aware of. I have literally zero idea what to do here. The only people that do are in my space, human space. That's pretty far away right? Judging from your reaction to me mentioning how I travel, namely not using these 'relays', there's probably stuff that there's be a lot of people that got very mad about me talking about back in the bubble."

At this point there was tension in the air, not hostile but a sense of foreboding was beginning to build and Marcus was oblivious to it.

"We're close to your space but not mine. I don't know how you'd get where I need to go but I do know I can bring some of you along. Unless you all have a better idea or plan, that's what I'm suggesting."

Benezia and the other two, salarian and turian, were simply staring at him wide-eyed for the brief pause as Marcus fidgeted.

"I really don't have, nor want, the slightest idea of how this should go."

The Salarian squeaked and croaked something to the Turian next to him and the Turian answered in some trilling whistling sounds that were entirely out of place for what Marcus envisioned the mandibled and predatory alien would sound like.

Benezia frowned up at the two of them and they both looked away sheepishly before she answered him.

"How long would such a journey take Commander Marcus and how many could you accommodate?"

"Well, it I make my best time, a few days but it would be best to plan on five days in each direction."

A low whistle distracted him as the Turian seemed rather surprised at that.

"And you say you do not use relays?"

Marcus shook his head, "No, nothing but my ship and my SRV. If it's just you three that should be fine. I can fit a few more but they wouldn't really have seats on the bridge with me."

"Only that many? Your ship seems much larger than that."

"Well, it is but most of it is taken up by the different modules. The permanent crew space is fairly small since it's just me out here."

"Only you? You are full of surprises Command Marcus, a ship that size would take dozens of crew for our races."

"Well, we've put a lot of time into miniaturization and automation. She's a big ship but in the right hands she can fly like a fighter."

The Salarian raised his hand and began typing into his Omni-tool at that as Benezia picked up her tea and took a thoughtful sip, seeming to savor while looking into the cup before looking up and setting it down suddenly.

"I cannot pass up such an opportunity. If you would excuse us, I will see to the arrangements on my end and then we can discuss how to proceed?"

Marcus felt relief, back on his ship he could handle the situation, he had started to get very anxious with what was happening but just the thought of getting back behind the controls of Lucy and travelling again began to put him at ease.

"That sounds fantastic Matriarch, are your two friends going to be accompanying us?" He motioned vaguely at the two with her.

"I don't think I could keep these two away from something like this although I may need to ask you to accommodate one more as well. But we can speak of that after."

She began to stand and the other two quickly stood before her as Marcus followed.

"These two will guide you back to the shuttle bay, I apologize for not introducing them previously. The Salarian's name is Uolon Soldar and the Turian is Velictus Surlinus."

Marcus waved to the two as they left the room for the shuttle bay. Just as he crossed the door though, Marcus looked back at Benezia and caught the look of excitement on her face.

It could be bad but at the moment, Marcus decided that it was a good thing.

* * *

Irissa's hologram looked at Benezia dumbfounded but it was Sparatus that got the first word in after she had dropped the news.

"I cannot advise for this Matriarch, taking a trip with an unknown member of a newly contacted race? How can we be sure you will be safe? You are one of the most respected Matriarchs within Asari space. If what you've explained is true, we may very well not even be able to reach you where you are going."

Irissa finally shook herself out of her stupor, "Benezia, Sparatus is right. We cannot risk you going off into the void. We've no assurances that you will be safe-"

"That is true during nearly every first contact Councilors. I am willing to take the risk. Commander Marcus has seen some of the worst that our species have to offer on that Elcor freighter, we owe him some trust to introduce ourselves properly."

That calmed the three Councilors down a bit and Benezia took the opportunity to tap a few controls, sending a file to the three of them. She could see all of them look to the report she sent. Bursik was the first done, his eyes darting over the report before he gasped in shock. The other two were soon after.

"Benezia is this true? The Asari he melded with...died during the meld? No one survives that, not even us!"

Benezia just nodded grimly, "There is no other phenomena that would leave an Asari dead with her eyes still in the meld and there was no other near with any signs of having melded. Marcus has been very reluctant to be even within arm's reach of an Asari. I do not think he survived the ordeal easily."

The four of them were quiet at that. A race that had the neurological fortitude to survive the death of an Asari during a meld would be fascinating if it wasn't overshadowed by the acquisition of that knowledge.

Finally, Bursik spoke up, "There is a Spectre close by, Spectre Odoln. He can be there in a few hours. If you can wait for him to accompany you I think I speak for all of us that would be acceptable."

"I believe we can wait that long, yes. I can work with Commander Marcus on the beginnings of translating between our languages since I doubt he will volunteer for another meld or suggest it to any others."

A look passed between the three Councilors, this first contact was shaping up to be one of the more _interesting_ ones.

* * *

Marcus typed on the data pad Uolon had given him as the salarian poured over the last one he had finished. He had found he could read Thessian as well as speak it and that the writing he had seen so far had been in different languages. Now he was working on writing the same thing in English and Thessian. Of course he had to draw out the alphabet first and he wasn't looking forward to explaining the various rules and vagueries that English had but then again he may very well not have to worry about that.

The door to the small conference room he had been in with Uolon chimed as it opened and Benezia and another Salarian walked through.

Marcus had done many things and met quite a few people in his life. Some were friendly, some not. Some overtly hostile and would tell you just exactly how they wanted to kill you. Others simply seemed to exude an aura of 'I have a plan to kill everyone in this room.'

The Salarian was the latter.

Which did not surprise him in the least although it was a bit unexpected. Having security for a diplomat was prudent after all and as long as it wasn't an Asari who wanted to touch him, he'd be ok with the dangerous alien.

"I am going to assume you're here as the Matriarch's security?"

Then the Salarian surprised him with a smile that didn't _quite_ fit on his species' face.

"Good to know newcomer is observant, yes. I do not expect to be needed in that capacity with what I've been told but still. Precaution."

Marcus just nodded and handed the partially complete data pad to Uolon, "I'll complete this later if I have the chance."

Then turning to Benezia, "I assume everyone is here? Are we ready to board my ship?"

"Yes Marcus and let me introduce Spectre Odoln. As you have ascertained, he is here for security but moreover as another representative of the Council. He is part of the right-hand peace keeping force that answers only to the Councilors."

Marcus stood and nodded to them and with that they all proceeded to the shuttle bay.

Once they arrived, Marcus saw the new shuttle parked next to the one he had come over on. Beyond that he could see the ship he had been on as well as Lucy keeping position where she had been left, cargo hatch facing the airlock on the aliens ship a few meters from the hull.

With a thought he accessed his mindcom and gave a few commands to adjust his ship's position, turning it around to face the Asari cruiser he was on. The Spectre was the first to notice, his head snapping over to Marcus with a clear question on his face despite being alien.

Marcus tapped the wrist of his Remlock suit and then his forehead.

"Mindcom. Gives us in the Pilot's Federation a better way to fly our ships since it's just us in it."

Benezia just smiled, seemingly amused by the surprise and the Spectre's reaction.

"Well Marcus I'm sure there will be plenty of time to speak about it during the trip." The five of them stepped onto the new shuttle, the smooth contours of the door sliding shut behind them. Velictus sat in a seat in the front and Marcus moved behind him, looking at the controls and trying to figure out what did what.

He was failing miserably too. Velictus tapped some controls and he felt his hears adjust as the shuttle became airtight. Then he felt a nearly imperceptible movement as they took off, the view outside the shuttle shifting as it lifted off and spun around before moving out of the bay.

Velictus guided the shuttle out slowly towards Marcus' ship a moment before lifting his Omni-tool and speaking Turian into it, translated to Thessian a moment later.

"Where can we dock?"

Marcus nearly slapped himself upside the head, "Technically nowhere but if you go in through the cargo hatch."

With a thought he sent the command and the hatch opened and lights came on Lucy.

"Just there, you'll have to nearly bounce off the hatch and go straight up but you'll see space to land in there."

He turned to the other three in the shuttle, "It's hard vacuum in the cargo bay so we'll all need suits until we get into the corridors."

As the shuttle moved into the cargo bay, Marcus saw Uolon and Spectre Odoln put on helmets. Velictus just tapped something on his collar and a thin helmet unfurled over his head, contouring to the strange shape in a way that caught Marcus' attention.

Then he noticed that Benezia was doing no such thing and seemed to be comfortable in her well-fitted dress.

"Matriarch, do you need a suit? I don't really have a way to pressurize the cargo bay."

A playful smirk pulled at the corners of her mouth, "I will be fine Commander Marcus. I have a means to maintain myself in vacuum briefly."

He tilted his head to the side with a questioning look on his face which elicited a short chuckle from the Matriarch.

Marcus didn't know what to make of that and just looked at her a moment longer before shrugging and looking back out the viewport.

Lucy was looming ahead as Velictus maneuvered the shuttle into the dark cargo bay, hitting the lights to show the bare scaffolding inside. With a gentle shudder, the shuttle seemed to mag lock to the surface it had touched down on. Suddenly they all felt a lurch of movement before the shuttle's inertial dampeners kicked in. Velictus' hands...talon, things began flying across the board as a few read outs popped up. Marcus connected with the ship and cancelled the automatic cargo sorting just as the movement stopped and he heard the manufacturing machinery kick on.

Normally, anything gathered would be shifted to the correct spot for weight distribution and then packaged in a cargo container that was manufactured as needed. The large container in front of where the bay had moved the shuttle was evidence of that.

"Sorry, automatic process when cargo is scooped. It secures the cargo and puts it center of gravity. Never know what you'll pick up out here in the black but it's almost all automated."

Uolon moved to stand next to Marcus to look out the viewport. Benezia noted that while Marcus glanced at Uolon, he did not step away or try to keep his distance like Marcus had with Asari. A younger part of her felt a small twinge of regret at that. She would have like to have melded with the human. It would have made the language barrier non-existent even more but also afforded her a glimpse into the mindset of his species.

"How intelligent are the automated systems in this ship to let a single crew member control it all?"

Marcus laughed a little at that, "Well, each hull has fairly similar components and each of them have been refined to the point that they generally just work."

Velictus tapped a final few commands and many of the controls he had been working flickered and blinked off as his chair swiveled around.

"As engrossing of a conversation that would be, I believe we have arrived and are ready to disembark. Is everyone airtight?"

Marcus was about to respond when Matriarch Benezia suddenly flared a wispy blue light that seemed to wreath her skin like ethereal blue smoke. Marcus would later vehemently deny that he made a very undignified screech and attempted to jump backwards through the hull.

Among his reaction however was the responses from the others in the affirmative as they all looked over at him expectantly, Benezia with an unmistakable and very smug smirk on her face.

"Alright, I'll take it from all of your reactions that...that." he gestured to Benezia, "Is normal?"

They all nodded.

"Alright, well then." He ran his hands down his arms as if to straighten his suit, "Let's go then."

Velictus hit a control next to the door and a hissing could be heard as it got quieter as the atmosphere in the shuttle thinned out to vacuum. After a few moments Marcus saw Velictus nod and the door opened.

Marcus keyed the command for his suit to magnetize his boots upon contact and stepped off the shuttle. Standing outside the shuttle the lights leading to the airlock leading to the rest of the ship lit up and Marcus waved the others forward. Spectre Odoln moved forward and stepped out first.

Only to promptly bounce off the floor as he stepped out and flailed in surprise for a moment as he floated around.

Marcus almost kept his laughter in, almost. He did manage to reach up before the Spectre got too far away and pulled him down.

The Salarian Spectre looked very annoyed as he keyed his Omni-tool to activate the magnets in is own suit, adhering him to the floor like Marcus.

Marcus managed to stifle his laughter as the Spectre glared at him before looking up at Benezia to see her looking amused, surrounded by the blue glow.

With that in mind he lifted one boot and tapped it and then stepped down and made a show of trying to step up with the magnet on. The other nodded and Marcus turned and began walking to the airlock. When he turned back he was repaid for the surprising the Spectre, Benezia was just floating serenely after them, the blue glow intensifying briefly as she moved.

Shaking his head he made the rest of the way to the airlock and they all passed through. As atmosphere returned he led by taking off his helmet.

The Spectre's annoyance was gone, now replaced with a more neutral, curious expression.

"I hope this section of the ship simply does not have artificial gravity. I can appreciate a joke but I would have preferred not floating around an alien cargo bay."

"No, no gravity on this part of the ship. Or any part really. We've not figured that out."

The four Citadel members exchanged looks before Benezia spoke up.

"You are capable of extended FTL travel but are not able to generate artificial gravity? I didn't know it was possible to manipulate mass effect fields without that understanding."

Marcus shrugged as he hit the button to open the inner airlock door and looked back at them.

"I feel like I should be surprised when you mention 'mass effect fields'. The implications of those words….but we've not figured that out either. We don't manipulate mass at all. In fact, I think our technologies aren't really much alike at all."

"But there's no other way to travel faster than light. You use element zero to produce a field around your ship with a net mass in the negatives. Then you travel faster than light with regular thrust. We've been a spacefaring species for two thousand years and that is the only way we've found."

Marcus looked at Uolon and frowned before shaking his head before using the hand holds throughout the hallways to make their way to the bridge.

"Look if we keep getting side tracked like this we'll never get to Human space. Once we're under way I'll go into that a bit but I feel like the more we talk about the more someone back home is going to want to throw me in a dark hole for mentioning this stuff."

Spectre Odoln just nodded his understanding, "Operational security. You don't know if we're going to be friends or enemies."

Marcus stopped himself and looked back at the Spectre, "I suppose you can see it that way." He looked past to Benezia, the dim blue glow as she moved through the hallway.

"I'd rather we didn't have more enemies though." He kicked off and continued to the bridge.

* * *

Shiala sat across from a very stern looking Turian Admiral and did her best to keep her composure. This was the third time telling them what happened and it was the same each time.

"Very well Shiala, we will take you back to the Citadel once we are done with the system scan. The Council has requested you debrief them in person while Matriarch Benezia is on the diplomatic mission."

Shiala nodded and made to get up to go back to her quarters when the Admiral's aide burst in and handed the Admiral a datapad.

His features grew more grim looking at it before he made a motion and the reports from the system sprung up between them.

"It seems the newcomer, the Human, has some interesting weapons. This wreckage was found a third the way between the freighter site and the relay."

The images showed a Batarian privateer ship, Shiala's lip curled in a small sneer a that thought, the wreckage of one in any case. The small video clip played as the camera panned around the derelict hull. Angry melted lines of metal crossed the hull, the engines looked like they had been made of wax and pock marks of metal where the guardian arrays had been were evident.

The camera view finally panned over as the ship tumbled slowly and she gasped as she saw the gaping hole in the ship. She could see what was left of the bridge of the ship. It still, even hours later, glowed an even orange color at the bottom of a melted hole. It looked as if someone had use lasers to carve to the center of the pirate cruiser only to slag the bridge in a very deliberate and belligerent manner.

Her mind worked as she remembered Marcus mentioning that he had taken care of the larger ship that had ran and as she tore her eyes away from the images and looked at the Admiral she could see a thoughtful look on his face.

"I think we figured out what he did to the larger ship that tried to run.'

He made a motion to dismiss all but one of the images, this one was a chart of the system with the freighter site and the relay highlighted. A third marker highlighted a spot between the two and the Admiral pointed at it.

"What I want to know is why there."

She frowned at it as no answer was forthcoming and a sense of dread welled up in her.

* * *

"Ok, so these seats will contour to your body as best they can and help mitigate some of the acceleration while not in supercruise. Just keep the harness on, I'll not be doing any crazy flying during all of this but it's best to keep seated until we're on our way."

The other four were strapped in around the bridge. They had been mildly impressed with the size of it given that the ship only needed one person to fly it. Given the purpose of the trip, Matriarch Benezia was seated in the chair next to him and the others in the positions behind them.

With a quick thought, Marcus blinked through a quick check of the systems and fuel. He went through the navigation window and was about to open the galaxy map when he was interrupted.

"Commander Marcus, what are you doing? You sat down and looked around like you're lost. I don't know how your ships work but I feel like you should be doing something."

Marcus turned the chair around to face Velictus and looked at him and then back at the menus and HUD before it dawned on him.

"OH! You can't see any of this, right!" Having taken another opportunity to make himself feel foolish, he opened the menu for the display and toggled it.

Suddenly, for the other four, the bridge seemed to come alive. The lights brightened and the area in front of Commander Marcus lit up. Most surprisingly however was what they had taken for a slanted wall suddenly seemeed to dissolve into transparency. Now they could all see the vista of stars and small pieces of debris floating outside the ship as if there was nothing there.

"Usually this is all just piped into the visual centers of my brain via mindcom. I don't have visitors on the bridge ever so I never thought to turn on the actual displays."

All four of the Citadel members were looking around trying to take it all in as Marcus looked down and navigated to the Galaxy Map and turned all of their chairs to face it in the center of the bridge.

' _Alright, now to get back at Benezia for that glowing blue flying thing.'_

The lights on the bridge dimmed as a small 3D icon floated in the center before suddenly exploding outwards into a render of the galaxy. The faces on the four aliens made it worth it as the galaxy slowly spun between them all.

Now, Marcus decided to play it cool, feeling confident now that they were on his ship.

"So this is the galaxy map. When I want to plot a course anywhere outside the system I'm in and that's not directly adjacent I use this." He zoomed in on the system they were in.

"Now, I know all this writing is gibberish right now for all of you and we'll get there but first. Here's where we are right now."

Switching a few options he opened the bookmarks and selected Professor Palin's base. The galaxy map zoomed out so it could render a few hundred stars at a time as it moved to the Professor's system.

"And this is where we're going. I'll just do this…" he made a motion for the benefit of his audience and the system map loaded, he slid the view to the base and selected the set route option and the icon began spinning.

He exited the system map and zoomed out to see the entire distance between where they were and where they were going, watching as the route planner went though the process of sifting through star types, distances, and FSD calculations. An orange line reached out slowly across the distance, the endpoint flickering between stars until it all suddenly snapped into place and the small notification sound played.

"Alright, looks like we have a few Neutron jumps too. We've got 186 jumps to make before we make it to our destination."

Silence met him as the four of them just stared at the map. So he decided to pile it on a bit, consequences be damned.

"Should take us a few days but we'll make the whole 7,500 light years easy enough."

He exited the galaxy map and the chairs faced back towards the front.

"Well, if that's all, can you let your people know we're ready to go? Just as a courtesy."

As Uolon keyed his Omni-tool, Benezia just looked over to him with a neutral look on her face,

"Your people haven't figured out artificial gravity or even know of element zero or mass effect fields but you can cross these distances so casually."

Marcus heard Uolon finish letting the Asari cruiser know they were leaving and started moving away, the acceleration pushing them all into their seats gently as he slowly increased the speed as he turned, the broken circle reticle for the first destination star system coming into view.

"I'm going to guess it's just a matter of different technology bases. Sure, we can do this but we had to spend centuries on genetic engineering to get rid of our species physiological issues with being in zero-g."

He felt light again as he hit the top speed for the ship in the current frame of reference and hit the button for the high-wake FSD.

"Frame Shift Drive Activated" {Frame Shift Drive Activated}

The four of them sat back further into their chairs as the progress bar loaded and the thrum of the FSD built.

Benezia for the first time seemed concerned as he parroted the ship's English notification into Thessian.

"I hadn't expected to experience a new method of faster than light travel-"

"You'll love it, you never forget your first jump. Supercruise? It's fun but this..."

The FSD was charged and the ship shook with barely restrained power as the FSD began it's work puncturing a hole into hyperspace. The ring of distorted light around the target together with the sound thrumming and crackling through the ship seemed to punctuate what he was saying.

"Five" {Five}

He heard her whisper something about Athame under her breath and it was his turn to smirk.

"Four" {Four}

The shaking became more intense and he heard some rapid-fire Salarian croaking and squeaking.

"Three" {Three}

"Nothingtoworryabout!"

"Two" {Two}

"Trust me!" His smirk grew into a full-blown, nearly depraved grin as he did his best to really ham it up.

"One" {One}

"I'm a Pilot!"

The ship broke through into hyper-space accompanied by four screams and led by a human howling with laughter.

* * *

 **Ok, I know I said I wasn't sure about this chapter but everything after they got onto Lucy I felt good about. I've got a good segway into the next chapter and I know what I'm going to be doing with the next four chapters at least based on this. Anywho, hope it's keeping you entertained!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Alright, got this one out during the weekend. I'm glad you all seemed to enjoy the last chapter. For those of you looking for a lot of action and fighting, I'm not going to have a lot of that right now. This is a different first contact that's going to follow some characters more closely because...eh, that's how I'm writing right now. This chapter has some more build-up for the characters and they'll get some things out of the way so we can get them to the bubble with only more entertaining interludes.**

 **For now, shall we?**

* * *

There was a shudder and she heard her and the other three screaming as the ship thrusted forward with a lurch, that felt more like being kicked in the back of the chair. For a moment she was sure she had died and was on her way to Athame before she realized she could still feel the distant vibration of the ship as they traveled through...where she didn't know. Her scream died in her throat as she looked around out the windows, unconsciously leaning forward out of her chair to do so as the lights danced around them. Wispy clouds of light, shells of gossamer glow punctuated by multi-colored beacons that seemed to pass by them slowly and yet at incredible speed. In the back of her mind she began to realize she could almost hear someone. No, more than one person, as if she were in a crowd of reverent Matriarchs whispering something important to her.

An uncharacteristically innocent smile spread on her face and she felt like a child again.

Childhood memories could be said to be well and gone by the time an Asari reached the Matriarch stage of life. As Matriarchs, they were meant to bring their experience and wisdom to advise and guide and for nearly every Matriarch there was no wisdom or experience that was remembered from childhood. Benezia had been surprised by this when she had brought up how she had actually been able to relate to her daughter when Liara had been at the innocent age of forty and entranced by the sights in the parks on Thessia. She and Liara's father had been on the cusp of being matriarchs when they had conceived her, which was fairly rare among their peers, among other things.

Now though, she could only be grateful she still had those memories to reflect upon. She remembered being with her mother in the Temple of Athame on Thessia again, the somber and respectful atmosphere was broken when she, in the youthful energy of thirty three, had run up to the statue of Athame and nearly yelled about how pretty she must have been. Her mother had been nearly horrified but the priestesses had been very tolerant of her outburst and had put on a bit of a show with their biotics as they lifted and explained each artifact with whispered wonder.

A light laugh escaped her as a cloud of lights passed by them and she noticed the single, bright yellow point of light they seemed to be moving towards without actually making any progress.

She took a moment to look around at the others on the bridge, Velictus seemed completely stunned, looking off into nothing with a very stiff and forcefully neutral look on his face. Both Salarians were busy either furiously typing on their omni-tools, no doubt taking readings as best they could, or their eyes were darting around at the outside, trying to see everything all at once. She then glanced at Marcus and she realized that he was looking in her direction with a mildly amused look on his face.

Then she heard it, it almost sounded distant but it was distinct. Stress on the hull, metal being flexed. She glanced at the windows again before looking at Marcus who simply raised an eyebrow before jerking the throttle lever back and looking forward. She reached back and began to pull herself back into her seat and looked forward just as the star rushed forward to slam into them.

She slammed herself back into her chair and four clipped cries hung in the air for a moment before Marcus chuckled. That was when she realized that they were not going to crash into the star but had simply arrived out of whatever FTL that humans used.

She let out her breath and forced her hands to relax off the armrests as she took in the sight of the star in front of them.

Odoln was the first to speak after the jump, "Commander Marcus, I don't even know how to begin to categorize the questions I have for you so I will go for the simplest - What was that?!"

Marcus just worked the controls of his ship, controls that reminded Benezia of nothing more than the controls of fighters she had seen in her life, angling the ship gracefully so the star was not dominating the view but rather seemed to be just below the front of the ship. The corona of the star now able to barely be seen moving slowly as great gouts of plasma was pushed serenely off into the void.

"That" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder outside as all of the chairs turned to face towards the center of the bridge again, "was a hyperspace jump. Thirty-two light years in an infinite second."

He paused as they all faced each other and seemed to be waiting for more questions for a moment but was met with more silence. Either Odoln was shocked or just waiting for more and Marcus fidgeted for a moment.

"Well, I say infinite second because it always feels like forever but any clock on board says the time elapsed is mere seconds. Time always feels...itchy for me right at the end. Any of you get that?"

He looked between the four of them and let out a small, nervous laugh before Velictus suddenly seemed to shake himself out of whatever shocked mindset he had been in.

"What were those voices, those whispers?! I swear I heard them...Spirits..." Uolon jumped at the question even though Velictus had nearly whispered it, looking at Marcus again.

"I heard something too, like it was just on the edge of what I could hear or make out and the lights and, and...what was that?!"

"Hyper-space, it's a different dimension that we use to travel between star systems instantly. Well, now it's instant. Didn't always be that way but yeah, and those whispers you heard and the lights you saw? I have no idea. I see and hear them too but you look at any recording or video of what happened during that jump and any, and I do mean _any_ recorded media digital or analog will tell you that there's nothing but silent blackness out there."

Incredulous stares met him for a moment before Odoln and Uolon suddenly brought up their Omni-tools and went through replayed their readings.

"You're right…" Spectre Odoln's Omni-tool arm dropped to the arm rest after a moment of him looking, "There's nothing. The view is completely empty and silent beyond the ambient noise of the ship and our breathing."

Odoln looked up at her, "and what sounded like a small laugh from you Matriarch"

Having regained her sense of dignity, "Yes, it was a rather delightful display. It had reminded me of a trip i took while I was young is all. I find myself...fond of this mode of travel if all jumps are like this."

Looking at Marcus again, "You say there is no recording that shows what we see or hear though? I find that difficult to believe."

"Yes! Exactly! The universe is objective and consistent. Two plus two is the same anywhere in the universe and photons that hit our eyes are the same that would hit the cameras. How did they record nothing."

Marcus just shrugged, "No idea, hyperspace is a good bit outside of regular up, down, left, right, forwards, and backwards. It's at right and left angles to anything that makes sense. I asked one of the FSD engineers about it once and they showed me the math. Never want to look at that stuff again.

Odoln got visibly interested at that, "Can we see that math?"

"Thaaaat is something that's way above my paygrade." He clapped his hands together and hit a button on his armrest and the chairs all turned forward again.

"As much fun as it was to see your reactions to your first hyperspace jump, we do still have over a hundred and eighty of those to go so you'll have a good bit of time to get readings and such without me trying to tell you anything that might get me hung back home."

He edged the throttle up and pivoted the ship so the star was 'above' them and they suddenly heard a short series of clunking noises and:

{Fuel scooping started}

Any further questions were silenced for a moment as they saw something pop up in front of Marcus' view and low whine began to build as they appeared to move around the star quite quickly. The four of them just watched as prominences and streams of plasma arched off the surface of the star as they went by, a distant hissing noise could be heard.

{Fuel scooping complete}

Followed by more clunking and then Marcus angled the ship away and lined up with a circle with a quarter of it open and human writing next to it.

"Marcus, what was that?" He looked over at her and then over his shoulder at the other three before dropping the throttle down again.

"Just a second." He held down a button on the control and a noise built up to a deep, thrumming sound that seemed to resonate through everything. Suddenly, the readouts in front of Marcus and those superimposed on the front window were populated with various icons. Icons that vaguely looked like planets to her with a large one that was obviously the star they had just flown around. The chairs all turned towards each other again and Marcus leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees.

"Ok, so this pretty much confirms that our technology bases are pretty different. Save your questions for now." He holds one hand up with a single finger up, "Number one: Hyperspace jump - punch through to a dimension that had different rules and pop out near the largest gravity source in the destination system. Could be a star, could be a black hole, could the the barycenter of a binary star system. Hard to say."

He raises another finger, "Number two, fuel scooping, that's what you heard, the voice and the clunking? Fly deep enough in the corona of certain classes of stars and the device I have installed on this ship will scoop up to 1.245 metric tons of atomic hydrogen from the star."

Uolon went to say something at this point but Marcus just held up his other hand to cut him off.

"Three, we have our other version of FTL, Supercruise. All part of our Frame Shift Drives, or FSD, that get us from one point to any other in the galaxy that we want. Within a certain range of course."

Odoln spoke up, "Thirty two light years wasn't it?"

Marcus just nodded, "Close, this ship right now can do about that with what were' carrying right now but the more weight, the shorter the jumps. How much shorter is dependent on the hull and class of FSD installed."

He sat back after that, relaxing a bit, "Ok, so I'm sure there's some questions and I'm willing to answer just what's public knowledge for us so I can say I'm trying to stay out of trouble."

He shrugged and a smirk pulled at one corner of his mouth, "Try to at least, I'm enjoying talking about all of this. It's been a while since I've really talked to anyone. Although can you three not yell at me, just talk into your omni-tool and let it translate. Yelling does no good."

He pointed at Uolon, "You especially, I don't know if what you're speaking is different from Odoln's or if it's just your voice but it's a bit grating on the ears." Uolon scowled at that for a moment before nodding along with the other two.

"Who's got the first question, we'll do a few and then get some more of these jumps in."

Benezia cleared her throat, getting the attention of everyone besides Velictus, who seemed rather more quiet than usual.

"What was that thrumming noise we heard just now? Before you turned around after the fueling."

"That was the discovery scanner, charge it up and then it boosts out a hyperspace scan that hits everything within about half a light year. Gives a general scan of what's out there. If it's a star, planet, asteroid cluster, all that stuff. If I wanted…"

The holograms that would have been in front of Marcus if he had been facing the front of the ship blinked out and he took the controls. The ship began to turn, facing a small but bright dot that was ringed in a yellow circle.

"I pick one of these things picked up by the scanner and once I get close enough the surface scanner kicks in. This is close to the star so it's probably small and I'll have to...there!"

Marcus hit a few more buttons and the area between all of them flickered and an image of the objects in the system popped up.

"Once you're close enough you can see here that it shows the general makeup of the planet. 46% iron, 20% silicon, 8% of this, 3.4% of that, you get the picture. Don't ask how it does it. I never asked because I'm sure the math is beyond me."

Uolon and Odoln looked sour at that but after some typing on their omni-tools they seemed satisfied.

"Fast and reasonably accurate scanners, advantageous for exploration I suppose." Uolon seemed to think to himself for a moment, "If you make so many of these jumps, you've never seen any element zero on those scans? How many systems have humans visited?"

Marcus looked up, thinking at that, "Not sure, I've turned in thousands of scans. A lot less detailed scans though. I usually just scan the star, honk, er, that thrumming scan we call 'honking', and then if there's no life-bearing worlds or interesting stars to scan I jump."

"Life bearing worlds?" That had piqued Benezia's interest, "You come across those often?"

"Not a lot, gas giants with ammonia or water-based life are about every fifth system if I scan for it. Ammonia or methane biospheres are every fifty or so systems. There's some that are just right for humans though, those scans are worth a good bit. Those are fairly rare though, I'd say every few hundred or thousand in my experience."

"Life in gas giants? Ammonia biospheres?" The implications were profound for her and what it could mean for the Council. So much in the galaxy that hadn't been seen….

Spectre Odoln had gotten into a very business like manner however, "Could you share some of that data with us? Life bearing worlds or even those needing attainable amounts of terraforming are vanishingly rare in our space."

Marcus brought up the omni-tool he had and looked at it for a moment before hitting a few things on his controls, his eyes looking through menus that they couldn't see.

"That...uh, How? Our computer systems don't seem to be compatible."

Odoln just shook his head a bit, "Not an issue, if I can dig down to get to the Prothean…..base...co- Your species has never heard of the Protheans have you."

Marcus just shrugged.

"No, of course not because if you had you'd know of element zero." He muttered a few more things that were not translated.

"Now you see the problem. Wait, if every race you've met knows of these Protheans...how do your races decide where to put the relays? I mean, my species needed to do something like that in our early hyperspace days so the placement of those relays has got to be a big investment."

The four of them shifted uncomfortably, Velictus seemed to be about to say something before Odoln cut him off.

"Sorry, above our pay grade Marcus, sure you understand." Benezia frowned at that but said nothing. That was a subject she was beginning to feel would be best left at the professional negotiating level as well.

"Well, how about this Marcus, we think of some questions for you while we make some of these jumps. We can take a break occasionally and keep moving at the same time."

"That could work, I'll look every system over for things to get detailed scans of other wise with the fuel scoop I have on this thing the entire process of honk, scoop, jump takes all of fifteen seconds."

The chairs all rotated forward at that and Uolon and Odoln began going over questions. Velictus seemed preoccupied while Benezia looked out the window as Marcus aligned with their next system.

"How far to the next system"

"31.4 light years"

She nodded as she heard the FSD charge, the voice in English announcing that it was doing so.

"I do think that of all the diplomatic missions I've been on.

The countdown started again, she smiled and looked over at Marcus.

"That this will be the first I enjoy that travelling."

The ship jumped to hyperspace and lights danced in Benezia's eyes.

* * *

Ask any member of the Council species where the seat of power is in the galaxy and they'll remember an image of the Council chambers. A vast area, tiers of balconies facing the largest view of the serpent nebula behind them with the five arms of the Citadel in front of them as they deliberate within the democracy of the Citadel Council.

Few know of the secure chamber deep in the presidium where many of the more unsavory discussions and decisions are made. The uplifting of the Krogan, the contact with the Turians, the Genophage, the Quarians, and more times than any Councilor cared to dwell on, the Batarians.

The room did little to present it's importance. In fact that was part of it's security, it didn't _feel_ important. Just another small conference room with top-tier galactic security measures.

Now, three figures sat discussing an event of importance as is always the case in that unassuming room.

"Scans of the ship as it left read very little. A heat build up on the areas of the ship that are the obvious radiators but controlled in a way we've never seen before. In the infrared they radiate nearly perpendicular from the surface."

Sparatus frowned a Turian frown at Bursik, "So they may very well have better heat management in a battle. That could be an issue."

Bursik seemed incredulous for a moment, "Better? No, this implies their control of heat is an order of magnitude above ours. Especially considering if you believe that he is simply an explorer and not under the auspices of a government."

Irissa held up her hand, stalling the conversation and giving her a chance to speak, "We know very little of how advanced or out of date Commander Marcus' ship is for his race. We don't need to focus on that."

"No, of course not. Thinking of benefits to our technology base if we had the know-how."

She nodded at the Salarian before sitting straighter, "I think we should increase patrols of Terminus border systems. I can sway the Circle to provide Asari ships and favorable economic deals to the Turians to expand your fleets to meet the need."

Sparatus thought for a moment before nodding, he wasn't a warmonger but he nor any Turian he knew, would object to something like that. Duty was one of the life bloods of the Turian people.

"I'll inform those that need to know. I'm not sure how much use it will be though until we know more. The positioning of the pirate cruiser still concerns me."

"It was damaged and attempted to flee, engines must have failed there and the ship caught it."

Sparatus stood and with a flick, projected the map of the system the contact had occurred in over the table.

"That still doesn't answer my question, the distance is enough that the light from their drop from FTL wouldn't have reached the location of the freighter that was attacked."

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, "If Shiala's timeline is accurate, which since it seems to match up with other evidence I'm assuming it is, then that means a race that has no apparent knowledge of the relays or element zero knew to chase the ship in a direct line to the relay and then when and where it dropped out of FTL to attack it."

Silence stretched in the room as the three of them stared at the reports projected in front of them. Each of them doing their best to use what they knew to try to envision the best path through the events unfolding.

Finally Irissa spoke in a quiet voice, "It is good that it is Benezia travelling with them then."

Sparatus leaned forward, quickly swiping two files and setting one to play, the clip of the frigate-sized ship moving forward and then suddenly darting forward, the last frame paused showing an odd, redshifted afterimage that seemed to suggest the ship was half behind something that wasn't there. The other the image of the gaping hole in the pirate cruiser.

He rested both hands on the table, "I do hope you are correct Irissa. There is a lot of unknown and too much riding on this Commander Marcus' goodwill."

No one spoke after that, an unspoken agreement that the business was concluded for the time being. As they all passed through the door, Irissa spoke up.

"What do we tell the public?"

* * *

"Thirteen hundred years?" Marcus wasn't quite sure but it seemed that the Salarian had a distinctly incredulous look on his face.

"Yes, we took a while to really get in the step of things but we put a person on our moon about thirteen hundred years ago, I'd say that counts. And we've been over the math, it's roughly equivalent to Thessian years too, give or take a decade."

"It is strange that your race has not encountered anything Prothean or even any element zero. Only a few races have been space faring for longer than that in the Council. It is anomalous to say the least."

He thought about that for a moment as he adjusted the heading towards the next planet he was scanning, "Well, there's about 400 billion star systems in the galaxy. You can't honestly expect all of them to conform to your expectations can you?"

That expression Marcus didn't have to guess at, he had apparently offended the Spectre.

"Besides, the first few centuries we never used any faster than light travel, it was all generational ships."

"Your species actually used generation ships? We envisioned something like that but never actually got anywhere past the concept."

"There were quite a few colonies founded that way. Then again there were probably more failures on average than successes. We still find some of the derelicts floating out in space. The logs are almost never good."

"The Asari never had the concept of generational ships, we are much more long-lived than most species. That and we discovered mass effect FTL very early on comparatively as well. The courage of those humans on those ships…"

"Well, yeah, later on it caused some friction once FTL was figured out and our homplanet wanted to rule. They felt they made the trip so they shouldn't have to listen to those that didn't. Usual colonial stuff."

Velictus perked up a bit at that, "Yes, Turians understand that very well. Our species was on the tail end of the Unification Wars when the Council found us."

His mandibles tightened against his face a bit, "It was a bloody time in our history."

"Well, it didn't go well for us either. In fact, it didn't unify us but ended up with two and eventually a third faction. The Federation headed up at our homeworld, Earth and the Empire of Acheron. They were one of the first successful colonies if I remember right. History is a little fuzzy off the top of my head and it was around a thousand years ago."

"What was the third group?" Marcus looked back at Uolon as he throttled down after the scan on the planet was done, another icy world.

"The Alliance. Not really a single government but basically an area of systems that don't want to be under the other two. They were hard fought to exist and still less influential of the three but they've earned their right to exist."

The four of them thought about this as Marcus angled the ship for the next jump. Benezia seemed like she was about to ask him something else when he activated the FSD. They all got quiet, taking readings or just observing. They'd had plenty so far, they'd made their thirty-eight jump and were about to do their thirty-ninth.

He glanced up and saw they were going to be hitting a neutron star next and quickly cancelled the jump and turned the chairs in.

"Ok, we're near our fortieth jump and I figure we can get a few questions in."

Spectre Odoln spoke first, "This will be the thirty-ninth, at this speed we'll make the hundred and eighty in a day."

"Well, we'll need to sleep so I'll be landing on a planet eventually for that. Sleeping in gravity is usually better than zero-g. Well, the sleeping part is like on a cloud but waking up after gently bouncing around is very disorienting."

He laughed a bit, "Heh, well, that and I bet all of you are much more accustom to gravity in general."

Bringing up his omni-tool and glancing at Benezia he appeared to be taking the lead on questions this time around.

"We are and appreciate that. First question I have is this, how does your FTL drive work? In general of course, similar to how I described ours?"

"In general? Alright, easy enough. The FSD, or Frame Shift Drive works on two principles. One was theorized before we had really left our atmosphere and fairly recently."

With a thought he brought up the basic animation of Supercruise. A ship icon around a planet hologram popping up between all of them.

So we don't have a way of manipulating mass at all and that is, as I'm sure you're all aware, what keeps you from actually transmitting information from one frame of reference to another faster than the universe seems to allow, the speed light goes. We use "C" in our equations to represent that.."

With their full attention on him and what he was saying, Marcus played the animation. A bar for speed and power output popped up below and as the ship approached C, the power output darted up and eventually when the speed bar touched C, the power bar turned into the infinite symbol.

"Now since we've found that in spacetime, going even as fast as light takes infinite energy, we made an observation and extrapolation. While nothing could go faster than light in space. _Space_ did not, could not, be subject to that same limit. Whatever medium, if any, spacetime exists in has to allow space to travel faster than light or the universe would not have been able to expand like it had to have in the earliest moments after it's birth."

Odoln looked impressed if Marcus could discern anything from his expressions, "Your species theorized this before you left your atmosphere?"

"Yeah, we found that space was expanding in our early optical astronomy efforts and soon after that it was in fact expanding. That was about the time we had steam engines."

For a moment the Spectre seemed to relax, "I think our species will get along splendidly. We made similar discoveries early on in our scientific efforts."

Marcus just smiled and nodded before continuing, "Well, since we had no other way we knew of getting faster than light, an idea came up. Find a way to manipulate a bubble of spacetime to go faster than light."

He reached down at that and jammed the control to one side and they all looked out as the ship spun, Odoln did not seem surprised but Benezia, Velictus and Uolon seemed to finally notice that they were still in zero-g.

"I admit, I hadn't noticed. We are used to not feeling the motion of the ships we are on." He just nodded at Benezia.

"I had thought so but, to continue, the ship compresses spacetime in front of the ship and expands it behind it. In reality, the ship doesn't move but the bubble of spacetime, or the frame of reference of the ship, moves. With that we can move faster than light."

Odoln and Uolon busied themselves with their omni-tools, he watched for a moment before Odoln looked up, "You can answer a different question, him and I are going to be busy."

Nodding, he looked between Benezia and Velcitus, Benezia leaned forward, "I do have a question, I am curious, if your species was so determined to explore and expand to do so without faster than light engines, how much space has humans expanded to?"

"Well, we call it the bubble, centered generally around our homeworld and the few original colonies." The area between all of them cleared and a dot appeared.

"This can be called Earth."

Lines expanded out of it, one at first then two as they connected with two dots. There was a pause before more lines expanded out to another dot and another. Suddenly the lines seemed to snap out to other dots.

"Then we discovered faster than light and expanded a bit more rapidly but while fast, it was dangerous and not nearly as quick as "Faster than Light" Sounds to most people."

The dots kept expanding, sometimes slowing almost to a crawl before an area would push out in a general sphere from Earth.

"You can see why we call it the bubble. As it stands before about a century ago, it was only three hundred light years across. A lot of stars but I imagine it's nothing compared to what all of your races have."

He looked over at the two of them only to see all four of them just staring at the image quietly. Their faces controlled although Marcus couldn't be sure about Velictus since he couldn't quite make out what the mandibles on his head were doing.

A little confused he continued, "Hyper-space was dangerous back then, small ships had to dock with mega ships that took long periods of time to charge up using a very energy dense fuel. You saw the sudden pushes outward, that was usually the time to get the resources and money for the effort."

The projection zoomed out so they could see a larger area of the galaxy, a few hundred more light years of space around the bubble. The bubble was highlighted brighter while the rest of the galaxy's stars were dimmed.

"Recently we've made more advances, the current generation of FSD's came out and moving around the galaxy became easier."

With that, lines of stars began to light up around the bubble in all directions, sometimes expanding a few stars around the endpoints.

"A lot easier. Smaller ships were able to make jumps more safely and the option between fighting over resources or ideology came up. You could just get a decent amount of wealth and up and leave."

The map zoomed all the way out until the entire galaxy could be seen, a small, bright dot seemed to mark the entire area they had been looking at.

"It seemed like a lot but against the four hundred billion star systems? Well, I still think we're small. One of the reasons I became an explorer and keep coming back, there's just too _much_ out there to stay in a few hundred light year bubble. The past decade has seen the most, with miniaturization and other advances.

Suddenly bright lines streaked out across the galaxy from the point that was the bubble. Some in seemingly random directions, others between the bubble, a point near the center of the galaxy and the center. The paths brightened as they were travelled over and over. A line hit the edge of the galaxy and all four of their eyes were glued to it as it traversed the entire circumference only to soon be followed by others. A trail was blazed to a point on the other side of the galaxy farthest from the source bubble and got brighter as others followed.

Marcus just smiled as he watched the exploration heatmap play out in front of him. With another thought he stopped the animation and it reset to the bubble being the only brightened stars.

"Now, this is mine." The bubble flickered a bit, suggesting he had first stayed inside the bubble before a line darted out and back, another went after that in a different direction. Then again to the point next to the center of the galaxy and then the center.

"You've been to the center of the galaxy?!" He looked at Benezia, surprised at being pulled from watching the animation after having been pulled into the recollection of it all.

"Well, yeah, it's kind of like a right of passage." He pointed at the dot next to the center, "You go to Colonia, the colony around the first mega ship that tried to jump across the galaxy."

He pointed to the center, "Then to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy."

He looked at the four of them and shrugged, "It's actually a bit of a tourist destination, there's a tourist beacon there. I've taken a few passenger missions there in fact."

"Should...should I keep going?" Looking between the four of them he was starting to get worried, they seem rather shell-shocked at everything.

Odoln was the one to answer in a quiet voice, "Yes...this is...yes, please continue."

"Exploring, like I said, involves jumping around and scanning the systems you go to. Getting data on the celestial objects. Makes it worth jumping around just for the fun of it profitable outside of taking tourists and scientists to notable objects."

The map zoomed in on the area of the galaxy they had seen originally, the point between their destination and the system first contact had happened it. The line of stars brightened in a general zig-zag between the two, sometimes jumping ahead a farther distance before it hit the last system, paused and then a nearly straight line back to where they apparently were.

"That's where we are now, the next star we jump to is a neutron star. We'll be able to get a boost from it but it'll be a rough ride." The four of them seemed to not know what to say or do at that. He sat in his chair as the moment stretched awkwardly.

Benezia finally seemed the most composed and seemed to come to a decision and her mood changed suddenly and she turned to him with a hopeful look on her face.

"Commander Marcus, I think, your contact aside, this could be the most eye-opening first contact either of our people's have ever had."

"Well, if you feel that way even after me mentioning jumping through the relativistic jets of a neutron star then yes, I think you're right."

While the others seemed to have the rational reaction to that statement, Benezia seemed determined to stay hopeful.

"You've done this before, correct? It did appear that way from the path you seemed to have traced towards Council space."

"Of course, the Neutron Highway is the fastest way to Colonia. I just wanted to warn all of you and usually when people learn about how we do it they're more nervous."

He looked over at Velictus, "Like I'm assuming how he's nervous."

"Nervous? That's one word for it, we usually stay far, far away from collapsed stellar cores." The omni-tool's projection was shaking as Velictus did his best to hold his composure.

"Now Velictus, if Marcus had done it on the way over and his ship is still in good repair I think we will fare just fine. If it is as exciting as everything else we've seen so far I look forward to it in fact."

Part of Marcus' mind marveled at how similar the Turian surprised expression was to what he was used to, except they had the advantage of those mandibles to help the expression. Before his train of thought got much further however, Velictus pulled his mandibles against his face and his eyes took on a steely glare. An image flashed in his head of the pirate in the ship he interdicted after he had pried the ship open. Whatever the other four said between themselves after that faded into the background as he sat at the controls, staring into that Turian's eyes. His hands moved calmly and deliberately as he pulled Lucy back and angled the beam laser reticle directly at the bastard.

He felt his finger tighten on the trigger and resistance of the spring as -"Commander Marcus!"

He jumped at that and shook his head, looking between the four of them all staring at him. Benezia looked concerned, Uolon was glancing between him and his omni-tool, Odoln had a calculating look while Velictus studied him with a mixture of worry and resignation.

"I'm sorry...bad memory came up and I..." He wrapped his hands on the controls as he sat back in his chair, his fingers flexing around the familiar shapes.

The genuine concern in Benezia's voice struck him as odd, "Commander...Marcus, you have been through what I am sure has been a most extraordinary few days and you seem to have handled it very well as best I can tell. If you are worried about something we do not need to rush."

Marcus looked up at her, meeting her gaze, not sure what to say.

Uolon took his cue from Benezia's concern, "We are all accustomed to other races. If this has affected you that much, we can go back to the rooms you showed us."

When Marcus didn't seem to react to that he continued, "Is it something about the neutron jump?"

That got his attention, waving his hand dismissively, "No, I'm not worried about that at all. If I was bad at boosting on a neutron star I'd be dead a long time ago."

A pause as he tapped his fingers on the throttle control, "Like I said, I'm not a trained diplomat so don't take this the wrong way Velictus, for a moment you reminded me of one of the pirates I saw on his ship before I killed them during the pirate attack. First contact and all that."

The four of them stiffened at that, Velictus straightening in his chair, "There are pirates of every race in the Terminus systems, where you made contact Commander Marcus. I know our species are different enough to you that we may very well all look alike. I would not be on Matriarch T'Soni's crew if I were to be offended by such a misunderstanding."

Marcus looked to Velictus, "Not until you made that face, your..." he motioned at his jawbone, "mandibles pulled in against your face and your eyes got...hard. That look was the one the pirate gave me before I melted the bridge of his ship."

Velictus, to his credit simply flexed his mandibles and nodded sternly to him, "One less pirate in the galaxy Commander."

Marcus and Velictus held eye contact for a moment as an understanding passed between them. Marcus looked to the diagram in the center of the room as he mentally sent a command to display the next system.

"Alright, that's out there now but let's focus on why we're all on this boat together now shall we? Now only three of these seats are actually rated for combat maneuvers and that's about as close as the manufacturer got to how we'll be getting tossed around."

Benezia suddenly flared her ethereal blue aura and interrupted him, "Marcus, I have the ability to keep them safe if the duration is not longer than the last ten jumps. I can use my biotics to put them in stasis. They will be unharmed."

Marcus just blinked a few times, "Right, I guess with what I seem to have been surprising all of you with it makes sense that you'd have something that can surprise me too."

He grabbed the controls and the chairs all faced forward and he throttled up to full speed and engaged the FSD.

As the engine charged he glanced over at Benezia, the blue tendrils of power lazily moving just over her skin, "Matriarch T'Soni?"

Benezia's gaze stayed glued forward like she had on every jump, personally, Marcus was a bit flattered as she seemed to enjoy the hyper-space jumps for their own sake. Normally her gaze seemed excited in a subdued way he had seen in very disciplined people, now it was slightly distracted as she answered him.

"After Shiala had told me of what you'd been through I felt that using my first name would allow you to connect with me, an Asari, easier."

The countdown started for the jump and the ship vibrated and crackled like the thousands of other jumps he had done. He barely noticed this time as he watched the numbers plummet to zero when he realized something.

"It has actually Benezia."

The colors and lights of witch space danced around the ship as it stayed trained on the piercing blue-white pinpoint that was the neutron star.

* * *

She watched the lights dance around, the swirls and shells of light they seemed to travel through while their destination stayed at a standstill, the bright blue-white light they faced.

' _Progress…'_

She felt a smile on her face as one of her hopes was coming true. Marcus may not end up involved in any way with the official proceedings once they made contact with the human governments but she had decided that she would do what she could to ease his concern around her people.

A deep red light flashed by the side of the ship, her eyes followed it as it went past and she admired the strange shapes that played around them.

' _If nothing else comes of this I will feel very fortunate to have seen this strange dimension. I am sure Spectre Odoln will have the Salarians working tirelessly on our access here.'_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the ship shifting as the jump was nearly complete.

Her eyes moved to watch the point they moved towards, not knowing what to expect when they were jumping to a neutron star. She felt the strange resonating through her body that seemed to have been part of her forever before she felt the ship shudder.

A very un-matriarch-like gasp escaped her as the sight exploded into view. The bright blue point was now a blazing beacon in the center with two wildly spinning cones of blue light that seemed to be convulsing violently into the universe.

"Oh boy, this is a lively one!" Her head snapped to look over at Marcus, seeing he had throttled down to zero and the deep thumping sound reverberated through them.

"How close are we to the neutron star Marcus?!" She had tried not to yell but with what she knew of mining eezo from around neutron stars they were never close enough to see the plumes of the star like they were looking at now.

"We are point-seven-one light seconds from the core, so about two hundred thousand kilometers."

Benezia did something she hadn't done for centuries, she cursed and she didn't think she would regret doing so.

Marcus, thankfully, seemed much more interested in what was going on with the ship and very deadly, very close stellar remnant than her cursing however. He watched one of the displays until a small sound played and the information in the panel seemed to fill in before he looked over and saw her, pushed as far into the seat as she could go and her fingers a pale blue as she gripped the arm rests.

"Don't worry, our sheilding and hull block anything that could harm us. Given the small range of mass a neutron star can be on stellar scales, I always drop out about the same distance."

Finally he angled the ship around and away, rotating the ship so they weren't staring directly at the neutron star.

As she watched the jets of energetic matter spinning violently in the cone shape away from it she decided she didn't particuarly enjoy that view either.

"Now Benezia, you said you could keep the others safe in that stasis, right?"

She forced her arms to relax and took a deep breath, "Yes, how long until it will be needed? I can hold it for some time but I will need to concentrate."

"I'll take this a bit slower until we get in the cone but you can start now, it won't be much longer than thirty or so seconds before we hit the turbulent part."

A very real worry landed in the pit of her stomach as she looked over at the human Commander, from the species that had only just recently met.

"We are entering that?" She pointed at the wildly spinning cone.

"I did warn you it would be intense, you can all move to the rooms and strap in if you'd like."

For a moment she honestly considered it but quickly dismissed it.

' _If he has done this before and is confident...we are in his ship going to meet his race.'_ She took another breath before just pushing out of the chair, catching herself with her biotics and moving to the center of the area.

"Proceed Commander Marcus." She felt the eezo nodes throughout her body charge, the tingling buzz as her body charged. She made the motions and reached out, putting the others in a stasis as she increased her mass downward, anchoring her to the floor.

Marcus looked over his shoulder at her for a moment before sitting back and she felt the ship move as he angled the ship and they began to move. The spinning stream of matter flailing into space grew until it took up the entire view. The movement of seemed to draw in her entire view and made it nearly impossible to discern if they were still moving or if it was just the jets spinning near them.

She concentrated, using all her centuries of experience to calm herself and exert her will through her biotics. The status would hold for minutes after she stopped her efforts at this point. A fact she was very grateful for as one of the spinning jets seemed to loop up and behind the ship. Suddenly it felt like the walls of the ship were trying to reach out to her and bash her. She felt herself stumble and slide against one of the walls even with her increased mass.

Her feet left the ground and her back hit something that drove the wind from her and stars danced in her eyes.

She wheezed as she tried to gain her bearings and she felt someone grab her arm and a floating sensation. As she felt herself pushed into a chair her vision cleared and she was finally able to get her breath again. She looked up and was surprised to see Marcus pushing her shoulder down and she felt a strap across her chest.

He seemed to say something and point over and she looked over and her head swam, a blue smudge stuck on her vision.

"Wha-" gasp, "What?" She put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes shut tight for a moment and just took a few breaths, clearing her mind.

She opened her eyes and looked over and finally made sense of what she was seeing, Velictus was sitting looking over at nothing, glowing a wavy blue in the stasis field. She looked over at the other two and they were both in the same place with the same wavy blue field over them. She took a shuddering breath as relief passed over her, realizing that they had survived.

"Matriarch Benezia, you shouldn't have been just standing there like that!" Marcus had pushed back, holding himself near the chair still however and the concern on his face did help her focus.

"I cannot stasis myself Marcus. I had thought increasing my mass towards the floor would provide me some measure of safety but it seems I was mistaken."

She tittered a small laugh and closed her eyes as she rested her head back, "I'm afraid at my age you don't even think of assuming most of the younger races over estimate the severity of events."

She opened one eye, looking over at Marcus, "I will remember not to do so with your advice Commander Marcus."

She felt for the stasis fields in the room and released them, sounds of exasperation and relief were heard.

Marcus pushed off and looked over Velictus and Uolon but was waved off by Odoln. After doing that he drifted to his chair and situated himself.

"If you're ok Benezia, the FSD was charged. I should make this jump and then I'll land on a planet and we can get some rest and food. I think after that it's time for a break. I'll cut neutron jumps out of the route."

Benezia thought for a second, "What benefit do you get from flying through that anyway Marcus. I assumed it was a boost to the jump but if we still need to make the jump then it was nothing like what I thought."

She heard two omni-tools open, "It's not some sort of slingshot manuever or anything like that, flying through the high-energy cone of a neutron star gets you about a three hundred percent boost in distance on the next hyper-space jump. Before my max with our weight was about thirty-five light-years. Now the next system is a hundred and forty light years away."

She opened both eyes and looked over at him.

"It's any jump range that's boosted too, if your ship only does ten light years a jump you're only doing thirty, if you're in a stripped-down explorer you can hit around three hundred light years in a jump."

No one said anything at that before Benezia rested her head back again with an exaggerated sigh, "I really should try to not be surprised anymore Marcus but I am looking forward to when our people can work together."

She looked up at nothing for a moment as her mind worked, "This will change many thing for the Council, just knowing of such things. Change that some will welcome."

Marcus angled the ship and she heard the human phrase signaling the start of another jump, "I'm sure there'll be a good deal of that on my species side too. There's a lot of people that just want to go about their lives and not worry about things outside their immediate surroundings. Still, I'd like to think we're a curious species. I'm sure there's going to be crowds of people clamoring to meet all of you, can't keep back change forever right?"

Liara's father came to mind and her passionate speeches to the Circle and she couldn't help but smile at the memory as she closed her eyes and thought of Aethya.

"No, I think you're right Marcus. I know of a few Matriarchs who will rather enjoy the process."

She opened her eyes and watched as the ship began to thrum and crackle with energy before the shudder and flash of hyper-space.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Well, here's another chapter and just a little bit late. *looks at watch* Hrmmm... *looks at calendar* Ah crap.**

 **A lot later than I wanted but I just had trouble with this chapter, kept going in different directions. But here it is regardless!**

* * *

Marcus could hear the four of them talking behind him, the strange whistling chirp/barks of the Turian, the fast-paced croaking squeaks of the Salarians, and the musical breathy notes of Thessian.

' _Add in some running water or rain and I could sell recordings of this as some weird rainforest background noise.'_

He chuckled to himself and realized he must have got their attention because the talking stopped.

"Sorry, just thought of something, didn't mean to interrupt." He didn't look back to see what they were doing, just adjusted his heading to the planet he was going to and looked down at the readout. About 9700 light-seconds away.

"Just a few more minutes."

Silence stretched before he heard some subdued Turian and then the flat Thessian translation.

"Commander, something occurred to me just now, does your species have levo or dextro amino acids."

He thought for a moment about the two words, levo and dextro. He understood amino acids easily enough but levo and dextro didn't seem to fit anywhere of what he knew.

"..."

"Commander?"

"I haven't the slightest clue Velictus. I know amino acids, that's got something to do with DNA but levo and dextro?"

He shrugged altough Velictus wouldn't be able to see it past his chair.

"No clue. Why do you ask?"

"Our food, we have supplies in the shuttle, food for us four, but I was wondering if we would be able to eat your food since dextro and levo foods don't agree with you if you eat the wrong rations."

Velictus paused for a second, "You do eat don't you?"

"Heh, yeah, we eat. I have some food cartridges you all can try. It's not tasty but it will give an idea if we eat the same things. Is this an issue in your space?"

"The Turians and Quarians have dextro amino acids for our DNA, all other races evolved from levo amino acids. If we eat each other's foods there's a high chance of allergic reaction that can be deadly. There's some substances in our foods that are more-or-less universal but with the chance of some of the proteins being poisonous between the two amino acid chemistry we keep the food separate."

"Huh, well, learn something everyday." He pulled the throttle down to 50% and unbuckled from his chair then bounced through the bridge to the back, pulling out a fist-sized cartridge and tossing it so it slowly tumbled towards Velictus.

"Here, let me know." He sat back down and dialed the throttle back up.

He dialed the throttle back as he go within a few hundred light-seconds of the planet, the gas giant the planet he had picked to land on became visible as he heard Velictus and one of the Salarians talking.

As they got closer to the gas giant he began to make out details, the greyish blue colors swirling around in silent maelstroms. He watched the planet as he edged the control to one side, setting the ship spinning slowly as the smaller moon he would land on became visible.

"I can see why you do this Marcus." He glanced over at Benezia who seemed to be enjoying the view as much as him.

"Well, like I said, there's just too much out in the galaxy to stay in known space. Just think, we land on this moon, eat, sleep, and talk for awhile. Then we'll leave and no other sapient being may land or even see this view again in the history of this star system."

The soft humming drone of the ship hung in the air as they thought about that before it was broken by a abrupt 'ding' from Velictus' Omni-tool.

"Well Commander, it seems your species is levo amino-acid. There are a number of chemicals in this food that would cause….complications for Turians."

Velictus tossed it in Marcus' direction but failed to account for zero-g and it sailed up and bounced off the ceiling. All of them watched it as it spun lazily towards the front of the ship, Marcus looked back to Velictus and laughed.

"Takes some getting used to but you'll get it." Marcus went to say something else before the food cartridge started glowing blue and seemed to fall towards him. The blue glow faded as it floated in front of his face and he grabbed it and looked over at Benezia with a surprised look on his face.

To her credit, Benezia only smirked, "Takes some getting used to." Marcus was about to ask a question when an increasing whine broke the light-hearted atmosphere.

The four of them looked at Marcus as he jammed the throttle back suddenly and was about to do something else when suddenly the planet expanded suddenly in the view and the ship lurched violently. Alarms filled the bridge along a few groans and the sound of metal on metal as the food cartridge bounced around behind all of them.

Marcus cursed to himself as he paged through the menus, checking the integrity of the modules and hull.

"Well, sorry about that everyone. Usually landing on a planet is a much more gentle approach but at least you got to see what happens when the ship gets too far into another, larger, frame of reference."

Odoln closed his Omni-tool after having ran his quick-diagnostics on himself, "Too far into another frame of reference? You mean the gravity well of the planet? Is that an automatic failsafe?"

"Something like that, too close to another frame of reference, gravity from a planet or star usually, forces the computer to drop out once it gets close to being unable to calculate the compression and expansion of spacetime around the ship."

Benezia shook off the rattling feeling she had from the sudden stop, "Does that mean that your ships cannot be used as weapons?" Thoughts of the Krogan rebellions swam in her head.

"What? No, not at all since the ships don't actually move fast. Remember, it's just a bubble of spacetime that's moving. Although I don't know what would happen if we had a way to keep the FSD running through a planet. Since it warps spacetime I'm not even sure anything would happen."

The four of them digested that while Marcus angled the ship away from the planet and re-engaged supercruise. Swinging around and coming around in a much more controlled manner.

"I'll swing around and come in like I should have if I'd have been paying attention. It'll take less time and there'll be less g-forces than having to boost for ten minutes to make the sixty kilometers to the surface."

He heard a subdued trilling 'hmm' sound behind him and then the whistling chirp sounds as Velictus spoke into his translator, "I suppose you would need to worry about that if you don't have inertial dampening on a ship during planet fall. How much force do you encounter in this ship when accelerating?"

Taking a moment to adjust the throttle as the planet filled the view before answering, "Well, in combat in this ship I think I've gotten close to twelve g's boosting around another ship. In a glide on approach to a planet I've nearly blacked out so over 15 g's."

Whatever Velictus or the others were going to say was interrupted as the ship shuddered hard and they felt a measure of gravity re assert itself. They could feel a strong vibration as they all watched intently out the window as the ship seemed to float towards the surface.

From beside him Benezia released her grip on the arm rest and seemed to want to say something before he cut her off.

"You may want to keep holding on Benezia, when we get out of the glide we're going to decelerate normally and I don't really want any of you to slam into the controls."

They all braced themselves as best they could although Uolon had to brace against the back of Velictus' chair.

He watched the altitude drop below 10km and suddenly felt and heard the ship decelerate, the familiar sensation of the chair moulding around him to keep him seated and the tightening of his remlok suit. He heard a bit of scrambling behind him as Uolon did his best to keep from sliding around. Benezia had flashed blue for a moment but seemed in control again now though.

As his speed reduced to a steady 150m/s he throttled down and levelled out, keeping the ship horizontal as he moved towards the surface. It would take a bit longer but he didn't want to do his usual quickest route with the four of them along. His look of concentration as he approached the surface and deployed his landing gear must have seemed serious enough that no one spoke as he worked his ship to the surface and the gentle shudder-thump of the ship landing was felt.

With a decreasing whine they all felt the ship power down. He keyed the controls and the seats all turned towards the back of the bridge.

"Alright, we have .7g's of gravity here, should be enough for us to be comfortable to get some food and rest. Not to mention some q and a for all of us. Also, if any of you feel up to it, you're more than welcome to take the SRV out for a bit of a jaunt. I usually do, keeps me supplied and it's fun to get out and about."

All of them got up and stretched a bit except Benezia who seemed to rise and move to stand near him. He noted idly that he didn't feel the need to move further away from her like he had before.

' _Then again I'm on my ship and I'm their only lifeline out here. Is that it?'_

He looked around at them, glancing at Benezia for a moment. The memory of her getting tossed around when they were in the neutron plume and his scramble to get her back into her seat and strapped in came to mind.

' _No...they're less like aliens and more just like weird looking people. Asari...well, Benezia...I suppose she's alright. No freaky black eyes and mind-stabbing and she's been...well, they've all been good passengers all things considered.''_

He motioned towards the doors at the back of the room, "We can go back to your shuttle to get your supplies if you'd like and then get some food. Do a little sight-seeing afterwards if any of you feel up for it."

Voicing their assent, Velictus, Uolon, and Odoln all made their way back toward the cargo area, he looked over at Benezia and she gave him a small smile and followed the others as he followed. He heard the fast-paced speech of the Salarians intermixed with Velictus' speech both, untranslated.

He laughed to himself when Benezia cut into their conversation, "Oh you will be fine for now Velictus, we can all tell you how his food tastes." After that the laughter of the other two and grumbling trilling sounds translated easily enough.

* * *

The Spectre sat in the room at the small terminal he had setup, the cursor blinking as it waited for input. His attention was on his Omni-tool, images and words were flashing past as the program he had set was archiving, compressing, and encrypting the data he had acquired so far. As the progress ran towards the end he caught the last pages flash by the screen and he frowned. Hitting the confirmation to transfer the contents to the terminal and then letting his arm down, he sat at there for a few agonizing moments.

He struggled to begin his report and while there was no realistic deadline to it, it greatly annoyed him that he was unable to clear his mind and begin. The images of the last few lines of his compiled data ranckled him. In his eidetic memory the pages flashed by again and again.

The sections on the Human's military strength, economic power, and technology level were basically all guesses. Educated guesses that he had spent a long time formulating considering what he had seen so far but still just...guesses.

He shook off the feeling and started his report.

" _This is an initial report on the observed and inferred capabilities of the recently contacted species: Humans._

 _The limits of this report cannot be stressed enough in that this is a preliminary report based on limited time spent on the ship of the Human Commander Marcus. Title of Commander seems to be based on his ownership of an interstellar ship. Commander Marcus has made it clear that he is not affiliated directly with any Human government._

 _Absconding from the usual format used for such reports I feel I must preface this with the following:_

 _I will outline what I currently know and followed by what I know I do not know. Based on a single day of travel with the Human Commander Marcus I can confidently say that there has been no other single event in the history of any of the Council races that will change known space as much as the introduction of Humans into Council space. I will not speculate on if this will have a positive or negative effect._

 _ **History:**_ _Subject to verification upon arrival into Human space, their history in space stretches back approximately 1300 years, Citadel standard. The first few centuries saw the use of generational ships sent out in great numbers and the establishment of their first successful colonies. Following this was the advent and use of a primitive version of one of two of their current FTL engines, Hyperspace, as described below. Contrary to the method of colonization that all Council races have followed upon the discovery of the Relays, Humans expanded outwards in all directions methodically due to no contact with anything Prothean. It is unknown if there was no Prothean presence in the space they have explored or they simply have not discovered any that are in their space. Note:the latter is unlikely due to the presented length of time. Their method of expansion created a sphere of space around their core systems that Commander Marcus had stated is referred to as the "Bubble"._

 _In their most recent history however, their ability to traverse between stars has apparently increased by a few orders of magnitude. In the attached video is the presentation Commander Marcus showed us detailing their history in space. Note, starting at the timestamp 2:82 it is seen that the introduction of their newest iteration of their FTL seemed to allow for an apparent high amount of traffic to areas across the galaxy. This suggests a proclivity for exploration and expansion that while at first was deeply alarming, is less concerning when considering the scope of the galaxy._

 _ **Hyperspace:**_ _The main method of FTL the Humans use to travel between star systems outclasses all other known methods of FTL with the exception of the Relays. The ship we are travelling on is capable of traversing up to 35 light-years, completing the entire 'jump' in as little as ten seconds. The ship then arrives in the destination system near the largest gravitational body. The ship arrives in the second form of FTL that Humans possess as described below. The tactical advantage of this cannot be overstressed. Ships with a hyperspace-capable engine would be able to arrive in a system within a sphere of space around the largest gravity well in a system, a sphere that our sensors would be hard-pressed to confidently monitor, survey the system in a moment using their sensors, and leave without passing the known constraints of the Relays._

 _An item that I would like to bring up specifically about the hyperspace travel is that it is subjectively inconsistent. I have attached the recordings and readings collected during the forty jumps so far and they all are entirely consistent. All black and silent beyond the noises of those aboard. All five of us on board however experience a large amount of lights and noise. I have attached a reconstruction of my subjective experience to the data accompanying this report. The possibility of passing the subjective experience via Asari Meld should also be explored._

 _Research into or the acquisition of this drive or the information on building these drives should be, in my suggestion, the foremost concern when formal contact with the Humans governments can be established. Barring the tactical advantages of this drive, the ability to leave the Relay network would allow for the resolution of some long-standing issues within Council space._

 _ **Frame Shift Drive:**_ _The second form of FTL the Humans possess, this drive is theoretically within the ability of the Council races to build much sooner than the hyperspace drive. The drive takes the frame of reference of the current ship and moves that as opposed to thrust applied to move the ship itself. As it has been explained, the drive warps space around the ship and then compresses space in front of the ship and expands it behind the ship, essentially pushing the pocket of spacetime to superluminal speeds. When this drive is active there was no movement detected within the space the ship occupied. Acceleration and deceleration went unnoticed. The only times an outside force noticeably interacted with the ship's frame of reference was during a close flyby of a neutron star and approaching too deeply within a planet's gravity well._

 _The data collected as well as cursory mathematical models outlining this method of FTL have been included in the data attached to this report. While it seems less efficient as a method of travel, an alternative method of FTL would be beneficial to Council space._

 _ **Sensors:**_ _I have not observed the capabilities of the current ship I am travelling on in respects to sub light sensor range or capabilities. However, alarmingly, the ship has the ability to utilize the Humans understanding of hyperspace to instantly scan an sphere approximately half a light year from the ship in any direction. Furthermore the scan reveals the type, size, and position of the objects in a system. The ability to do so and then process the data in realtime in relation to the ship's position would be immensely useful. Another feature of the ship scanners is an apparent ability to, when close enough to a body (the exact distance determined by mass) the scanners can, within a short period of time, give an approximate composition of the object to the hundredth of a percent._

 _Relevant data and descriptions included in data attached to this report._

 _ **Humans:**_ _Given the current sample size of one, I will not be making any comment on the species as a whole. It has been found they are a levo-amino acid base species and a body plan approximate to the majority of races encountered so far._

 _However, I will note that the casual mention of widespread and extensive genetic engineering may be a point of friction. It is also noteworthy that the aforementioned technology and observations were done on a ship commanded by a civilian. The implications of that are both deeply frightening as well as exciting._

 _ **Other Items:**_ _I have included this section to cover a few items that are of note. The first is the logistical ability of Commander Marcus' ship. Fuel seems to be of little concern as the ship employs a fuel scoop that collects atomic hydrogen directly from the corona of the stars we have jumped to as of yet. Commander Marcus has stated that he can scoop fuel from any stars of a certain class. What class of stars or the Human star classifications will need to be investigated and included in subsequent reports._

 _They make use of a basic nutritional slurry that is nutritionally dense and easy to store. They apparently have the ability to print the food slurry into a wide variety of their food dishes. My opinion is that they are a marked improvement on the base slurry. The ability to do so should be investigated as higher quality food can have a morale impact during patrols or long expeditions._

 _Those two items alone would suggest a very flexible and independent logistics chain and an area which I suggest the Council explore once diplomatic relations have been established._

 _The technology that is noticeably lacking in the Human technology base is the ability to manipulate Mass Effect fields or gravity in general. There is an apparent complete lack of artificial gravity in their technology base. They have used the aforementioned genetic engineering to deal with the physiological effects of null-g._

 _Humans seem to be completely ignorant of Element Zero or Mass Effects in any shape or form. Whether from dumb luck or other outside forces, they have not encountered it in any significant way until now. This could be leveraged to gain access to their technology and expertise as Commander Marcus was impressed by Matriarch T'Soni's display of Biotics. Caution should be exercised however as their current technology base could very well receive a large boost in effectiveness immediately while it would take time to decode and integrate their technology into the current Council technology._

Odoln sat back as he re-read the report quickly and encrypted and stored it for transmission once they got within range. Another copy was uploaded to a small probe in the shuttle that would seek out the nearest relay and comm buoy if necessary. A contingency of course, he had been getting less and less worried about Marcus as they travelled. He seemed to more concerned with surprising them than harming them. He was an individual however, they rarely represented their government...governments in the Human's case.

He heard footsteps approaching and reached out and shut the terminal off just as he heard a knock on the door. He got up and hit the button, opening it to reveal Uolon.

"Spectre, Commander Marcus has invited each of us to drive his surface vehicle. I wanted to ask if you would be wanting to do so?"

He glanced back at his terminal and then at his Omni-tool before looking back to Uolon and nodding. The two of them walking up to the bridge.

After a moment a thought popped into Odoln's head, "Uolon, don't you think it's odd that Commander Marcus is allowing us free-reign of his ship?"

"I had thought the same thing and asked about that when he sent me to ask you and do you know what he said?"

Uolon laughed a moment, "He said all the systems were keyed to him and that through his 'mindcom' he knew what was going on with his ship at any moment and then." Uolon stopped and looked Odoln in the eyes.

"Then he invited me to try to get into the ship systems." Odoln could only blink at that, the idea of inviting such a breach into ship systems purposely was crazy.

Odoln frowned as he remembered something from earlier and brought up his Omni-tool and did a quick scan. After the negative beep from his tool his hand dropped and he smirked.

"Computer systems aren't compatible. I saw a signal but the system didn't recognize it. Even if we decoded how the signals were being sent. We'd have to figure out the coding, function, security, possible encryption."

He shook his head and motioned forward and the two of them kept walking.

"A computer system based entirely off a base separate and alien from Prothean computer systems. I forgot how long it has been since any race has had to deal with computers that didn't run some version of Prothean code. Hanar coding is confusing but if you dug down it still makes sense."

As the bridge doors opened and they walked in, Odoln chuckled. "Clever, I wonder how long it would take for the four of us to be able to actually do anything with these systems."

Commander Marcus was standing, leaning against his chair with a cup of something steaming in his hand while watching out the viewport. As the two of them approached they could see a sixed-wheeled vehicle driving around outside.

Marcus motioned at the strange vehicle, "She's been out there for about an hour. Picked it up pretty quick."

The three of them watched as they saw the vehicle drive up the edge of an old crater, gliding up before suddenly rocketing up as the Salarians realized the vehicle had thrusters on the wheels. The vehicle started to drop but then tilted forward and started to roll. Marcus reached down and touched one of the holographic controls and suddenly they were bombarded by laughter.

"Marcus would you believe it has been nearly a century since I have been allowed to drive my own vehicle?"

The vehicle landed and suddenly went tearing off at a small ridge half a kilometer away.

"Oh, I could just override my aides and drive but I'm a _Matriarch_. I'm not expected to do such things anymore."

The vehicle hit a large rock and did a partial back flip. As it was about to land on the domed canopy where the blue Asari figure could be barely made out, the thrusters fired, flipping it back over and it jetted forward over the rock it had hit before bouncing a few times before settling down and moving forward again.

"I really have to thank you again for letting me do this, I've not had this much fun on official business in decades."

The vehicle reached the top of the ridge, going over a few feet before coming back down and resting on the rear wheels. Marcus made a motion and the viewport zoomed in on the vehicle. The three of them could see the top and back. Small puffs from the thrusters in the wheels looked to be keeping the vehicle balanced like that.

"I am glad I've never lost my sense of wonder about the galaxy." at that, he looked to the other viewports and saw the bright band of stars that made up the galaxy. A nebula could be seen above the galactic plane but it was small.

"Well Benezia, I know how much fun the SRV is and the galaxy can put on a show. It's great for sight-seeing like I said. The canopy gives some great views. If we weren't on a first contact mission, I'd take you to a system I know, there's two neutron stars and a black hole. There's a gas giant far enough away with a moon I love to sit on and watch the stars rise."

Odoln and Uolon looked over at him suddenly and Marcus just smirked at them, reaching down and rifling through the computer files. A small video popped up on the screens and the two of them were treated to the view he had just spoke of.

Apparently Benezia had seen it as well because the SRV tipped backwards, slowly at first but then suddenly a small boost and it was doing a slow back flip back towards the ship.

"It is lovely Marcus though I suppose we'll have to see how the official first contact goes before any of us start planning any trips anywhere."

Odoln looked back out at the SRV, "Well Benezia, in the interim I think we could find some time. After all, we are ahead of schedule."

There was a pause as they watched the SRV make its way back to the ship. Marcus spoke up then, "Well, I did plan for longer just as a rule. If you have ten or twelve days of supplies and this whole trip takes seven days, all the better but if you had packed seven days of supplies...you get the idea."

Odoln nodded, "I understand. You've neve-"

"How long have you been there on the bridge Odoln?" Benezia's voice had taken a more professional edge.

Marcus took a sip and cleared his throat, "Ah, they got up here a few flips ago."

They could almost hear the Matriarch purse her lips, "Well, I do expect them to keep this to themselves."

Marcus took another sip to cover his grin as Uolon and Odoln stuttered out their assurances they would.

"Now Marcus," her voice was light again, "How do I get back on the ship."

"Right! I'll head to the SRV bay and help you through it but for now get the SRV right under the orange squares you see under the ship." Motioning with his cup the three of them made their way off the bridge as Marcus explained the SRV to them.

"First thing you have to know is that it is a lot of fun, if you hit an ice geyser right you can get a good hundred and fifty meters up..."

* * *

The lights were dim on the bridge, Marcus had nearly everything idling while he whiled away the time going over what he was going to tell Professor Palin. He knew he'd have to get some privacy to go over everything with the Professor but besides the interface with the base, he'd never actually spoken to him. Rarely did any Commander actually speak to the engineers, they made good use of the base interface and their mindcom to go over what was needed and usually just assigned a group of their technicians to make the modifications according to their specs. Considering that was what you actually got access to once you convinced them to let you use their services.

Leaning his chair back a bit and putting his feet up he took a sip from his still-steaming tea. Hutton Orbital mugs were good for that, always kept your drink hot.

"Now how do I get just his attention so I can go over what I've found. I don't want anyone else involved right away I still might want to just drop all of this and leave…", he muttered to himself.

He heard the soft sound of the door to the bridge opening and nearly spilled his tea, he had been lost in thought and forgot there were others on the ship with him. Wiping off his chin, he looked up to see Benezia walking onto the bridge.

"Benezia, couldn't sleep? Or do your species only sleep for like thirty minutes?" Benezia smirked as she sat down in the chair next to his.

"Our species require about the same as other species in the Council, around seven hours. I just couldn't get to sleep. So much to think about after theses few days. It's all been very exciting."

He just thought for a moment, eyes going a little out of focus as he drank the last of his tea, "Yes, exciting."

She caught the look on his face and wanted to kick herself for her mistake. Before she could apologize however, he regained his composure.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure you didn't mean that about my part in the first contact. Honestly I'm pretty excited too, more scared than excited but still, excited! Not only one race but a whole group of you. I've been pretty worried I'd mess something up and have all of you declare a holy war on us or something"

Benezia frowned at that, "Well, I don't think there would be anything to declare a holy war about, there's not much of that sort of fervent religiousness in our space outside of the Hanar and Batarians."

Putting his feet down and leaning forward, "Well, that's good news at least. I'd say it's about the same in our space but it's hard to say for sure. There's so many different groups and places. I don't think anyone ever thought to ask about religion across all of human settlements."

He got up, his mug in hand, "Tea?"

"Yes please, the tea we had with our food was interesting but do you have any others?"

He stopped for a moment and thought, "I've got one other of the natural leaf tea but I can get you a slew of synthesized versions. I'll get you the other actual tea though, seems like a good occasion for it."

Walking to the back station he started getting another mug and getting the tea ready when Benezia continued.

"I'm curious Marcus and understand if you don't have the answer but how many human settlements are there?"

They were both quiet for a bit as Marcus mulled it over as he set the tea to steep.

"I got curious and looked that up a few years ago, the bubble has about nineteen or twenty thousand star systems with a human population in the system. It's not always garden planets and huge, bustling cities but star systems, bases on barren worlds, outposts, all that stuff."

He turned around and leaned back on the console next to where he had the tea sitting, "I found a guy that had sat and looked up the cartographic data on all the systems in the bubble. He said, in all total there was about five and a half trillion humans. So there's a lot of us but there's also a lot of room in the galaxy. Since I talked to him those years ago, there's been some changes, expeditions outside the bubble and all that. Now there's actually a sparse string of settled systems on the way to Colonia. Just smaller bases but still."

The timer beeped and Marcus removed the tea bags, putting them in the recycle shoot and grabbed both mugs and walked over. Handing one to Benezia and sitting down with his.

Benezia just breathed in the scent of hers for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face for a moment before she seemed to decide to just enjoy her tea. The two of them just sat for a while, looking out at the gas giant slowly spinning into view as they enjoyed their tea.

Taking the last sip of her tea she wrapped her hand around the mub with a curious look on her face.

"Marcus, what is this cup made of? It hasn't cooled down at all."

He lifted his, "Hutton Orbital mugs, they're made at a station thats about a fifth of a light year from the point you drop in from hyperspace. Takes hours to make the whole trip in supercruise. Some ships don't plan their fuel and run out. Some have issues and end up scrap. Other times someone takes a large ship like Lucy here to the outpost only to find that they can't dock."

He laughed, "There's a running joke you can get a free ship like Lucy here once you get there. A running joke but sometimes some newbie will get pretty mad about it. But, these mugs are made from the plating on the FSD of some of the ships that don't quite make it. They stay this temperature, not sure why but it's handy if you forget you made tea or coffee and set it down."

He tips his mug to her and winks, "Never have a cold drink again."

Going to drink the last of his tea he smirks and chuckles a bit, "Well, in gravity of course, leave it in zero-g and you'll just end up with a glob of cold liquid floating around."

Benezia laughed quietly at that, "I imagine you only do that once."

Marcus just laughed and nodded at that before asking, "So how did you end up on this diplomatic mission of first contact?"

Straightening a bit at the change in topics, "Well, as you know Shiala let me know about what happened as soon as she could. I could have, well, I'm sure they would have preferred, gone to the Council - our ruling body - and conferred with them but…"

Marcus raised an eyebrow, "But…"

"With what you had gone through I didn't want to wait for them to get through their decision making process only to select me anyway. It would have take too long. I am one of the foremost respected diplomats in Council space. They would have sent me anyway although maybe a bit more prepared."

Marcus stood suddenly and with an exaggerated flourish of his hand bowed deeply at the waist, "Matriarch Benezia, I am honored."

Benezia pulled back a bit, surprised until he straightened up with grin on his face and she laughed.

"I will say Marcus, your irreverence is refreshing. I understand the need for decorum and poise but sometime I would like to just be treated like Benezia instead of 'Honored Matriarch' all the time."

Marcus sat back down, "Well, I have none of the cultural background or decorum. My poise leaves something to be desired too. Glad you got a laugh. Considering how far over my head I feel, a bit of humor is helping things along. You don't have to worry though, you're a passenger on my ship."

His smile faded and he nodded to himself, "I know how to treat passengers on my ship. That is something I know how to do so I figure that's the best way to avoid insulting anyone" His smile returned, "And besides! At least you're not asking me to stop and pick up your favorite food dish from a system seven jumps one way out of our way like some of the more demanding passengers I've had."

He chuckled to himself at that before he noticed Benezia had seemed to have gotten serious again.

"All official duties aside Marcus, that is another reason I rushed to that system. A slaver attack is bad enough for first contact but your…meld…" she paused to gauge his reaction before continuing.

"It was the worse way for that to have happened. An Asari meld is an intimate experience at it's best. The sharing of two minds willingly...that the Asari on that freighter did that do you and then...died during it. There are so few cases of that happening that I know of only two, three now, in my nearly eight hundred years of life. I can't imagine why."

Marcus kept his face controlled through that, looking down into his mug and playing his finger around the rim of it as silence stretched.

Then, in almost a whisper, "I know why she did it...the reason. She had hidden her daughter..." His voice hitched for a moment and his jaw flex as he clenched his teeth and then shook his head a bit.

"Mira..."

"That was the second person screaming I had heard over the radio when I got there. I've heard those desperate cries before in pirate attacks in my space and it never, "he grit his teeth, " _never_ , fails to bring out the worst in me on those that did it.

Silence stretched again as Benezia sat patiently. His eyes looked around at nothing as memories flashed in his head before he caught himself and cleared his throat, setting his tea on his arm rest and sitting back. He didn't look at Benezia as he spoke but kept his eyes on the tea and he traced the handle with his finger.

"That's why she melded with me, she didn't even realize I was an alien. Just that I didn't understand Thessian. After she died, I sort of...broke for a while. Ran through the freighter and found the room her daughter should have been in but it was just a gaping hole in the ship behind the door."

"..."

"Everything was so mixed up in my head, I remembered her and my memories in some strange, jumbled juxtaposition. I don't know how long I sat there."

Coughing a bit and grabbing his mug and taking a sip he sat up again and looked at Benezia again, "So, facing something like that I did what I always try to do in emergency situations. I pushed it out of my mind and focused on what I needed to do. Compartmentalized it. Talking to Shiala and trying to figure out what to do next. You arriving when you did help, too long and I might have just left so thanks for that."

He nodded to himself slowly and his eyes drifted off, looking at the air between them, "But, I do feel like I'm kind of coming apart at the seams but I can't just yet. When I can, I'll do that the same way I've done when I had to spend days keeping it together as I made my way back to the bubble."

Lifting his mug up in a toast and looking at her, "I'll go to a bar and get absolutely smashed!"

He laughed as he brought his arm down and took a drink of tea but he heard the edge of mania in his laugh.

' _Still not time to come apart though Marcus, gotta make it back. Introduce these aliens to the powers-that-be and then see if I can drink enough that I need a progenitor cell treatment for a new liver.'_

Before Benezia could really react to everything he had just said, something popped in his head about what she had said earlier.

"Wait, eight hundred years?"

Blinking at the sudden shift in tone, "Yes, Asari live an average of a thousand years, our natural lifespan. How long is the human lifespan?"

He thought about that a moment, "Depends on where you live, how much you make and what you do. A miner on an asteroid base in low security space? About seventy years if they've had no genetic stuff done and nothing else gets you first. Living in one of the core worlds and you're fairly well off?"

He shrugged, "Genetic work can put the average person up to a hundred and fifty years but with progenitor cell treatments...pretty much until something else kills you."

Benezia was surprised at that, "You have a medical treatment to indefinitely extend your lifespan?"

"More than that, need a new organ or limb? Progenitor cell treatments will do that too. Along with genetic screening and other stuff, there's not too much that can kill you once you get to the right doctor. The main thing people think of when they hear Progenitor Cells though is immortality. S'why in a lot of places they're illegal or frowned upon, some people don't think we should live forever."

He finished his tea and set the mug aside, "Well, we don't know if it's forever but I know of people that look like they're thirty but they've got four or five centuries under their belt. So, time will tell."

She shook her head as she drank her tea and processed what he had just told her.

"Now, as interesting as that is, I'm curious about that weird blue glowy thing you do. What and how?"

It was her turn to raise and eyebrow, "Well, it's called Biotics, all Asari are biotic to a certain extent since our planet has an abundance of surface deposits of element zero. Other races become biotic through exposure before their born. As to how I do it, element zero produces a field that lowers or raises the mass of anything in the field depending on the electrical charge applied. Our nerves have element zero nodules along them and with training, we learn how to produce certain...effects."

"That sounds….awesome."

She smiled a bit, "Well, it can be but learning how to control it can take a lot of time and discipline. Asari live the longest, I can make it look easy but there's centuries of practice behind what I can do."

She smirked as a memory came to her, "I remember when I was about three hundred years old, my mate at the time was trying to learn how to use lift, a skill to make something float for a while."

"Like {telekinisis}, er, making things move with your mind from distance."

"Yes, similar but lift isn't as controlled, you just make something float a few feet of the ground. But she was having trouble with producing the field and actually projecting it at something. I watched her try for hours one day. She got so frustrated but she finally got it, she lifted the training dummy."

Her smile widened and Marcus leaned in a bit, interested, "Except instead of going back to her neutral stance, she pumped her fist back, excited she finally got it. She accidently pulled the training dummy at her at high speed, slammed her back against the wall. She woke up a day and a half later."

She laughed, "She was _livid_. Which of course, I found quite amusing."

They both laughed at that, imagining the look on someone's face as they got hit like that.

"Kind of reminds me of my first time trying to land on a landing pad in my sidewinder."

"Oh?"

"Smaller ship, everyone starts out with one when they graduate, anyway, I hadn't heard of docking computers yet aaaaand I _may_ have wanted to show off..."

* * *

Uolon stretched and flexed, making sure his suit was fitting properly after his rest. The four hours he had slept he wrote off as being due to excitement of first contact and the list of surprises Commander Marcus had piled on everyone. Satisfied he was situated and checking his Omni-tool quickly, he walked the short distance to the bridge to see if anyone was up yet.

As the door opened, he heard, "-you're cargo or I'll take it from your wreck!"

"Did he know what you were hauling?"

"Not sure he cared, it was still worth something, but so I decide, if he wants some of the cargo, I'll deliver it to him. I don't usually but I was feeling up to it that day. I open the cargo hatch and get ready to jettison a one-ton container of it but just before I do, I boost forward and knock his shields down with my pulse lasers. They drop as I jettison the container. It slams into his canopy with enough force to break it _and_ the container."

They both laugh before he continues, "Turns out, a viper can almost fit an entire ton of crap in it's cockpit."

The both roar with laughter, interrupted by Benezia as she notices Uolon.

"Oh, Uolon, you're up." She looks at the time on her Omni-tool and her eyes widen a bit.

"Oh, Marcus, it seems we've been at this for hours. We really should get some rest."

Marcus just nods and hits a few commands, "I'm ok for a while longer, I'll get some coffee when Odoln and Velictus get up."

He stands up, "Well, I have to say it's been fun swapping stories Benezia but you're right. We've got a few more hours and then we can get going on our way. We can make the final hundred and some jumps in the next twelve hours."

Benezia nodded, said good bye, and made her way past Uolon to her room. Marcus sat back down in his chair and more of the holographic screens popped up on the dash as the lights brightened.

"Commander Marcus, you seem to be doing well today." Uolon said as he made his way to a chair and watched Marcus work.

"Yeah, we don't' really have too much further to go, then it's the part I'm _not_ sure how it will go so I'm trying to enjoy my time now."

"Of course, if your race has not had smooth first contacts before they can be nerve-wracking."

"Yep, and since our actual first contact was...not...good. It's refreshing that you all at least have a sense of humor."

He saw a smirk on Marcus' face, "And get into the same sort of stupid trouble us humans do, that helps."

Uolon just blinked as he tried to figure out what Marcus meant by that while Marcus flipped through screens and menus.

"Well, I'm not too tired, want to continue on the written language stuff?" Uolon nodded and brought up his Omni-tool.

* * *

 **Author's Note: And another one, Next chapter they make it to Palin's and there'll be some fuckery afoot!**


	9. Chapter 9

The star rushed into view, the dull purple colors swirled in view for a moment before he quickly turned the ship away. Watching the position of the star he kept a healthy distance from the brown dwarf.

As the scanner went of and he glanced through the list of planets, Marcus was pulled from the list.

"I am assuming you cannot scoop fuel from that star? Where do those stars fall in the human classification?"

He looked over at Velictus who had been in the seat next to him the past twenty or so jumps.

"Well, it's a brown dwarf and no, they don't fuse hydrogen so they don't really have a stellar wind to speak of. Hard to scoop hard vacuum."

He picked a class three gas giant that was decently far away and pointed the ship to it as he swivelled the seats to face each other.

"Ok, so I know how much we all enjoyed the hundred and thirty-plus jumps and as eager as we are all to get back to jump-honk-scoop-jump, I do want to point out that as of this jump we are now a mere ten jumps from where I will be able to bring…"

He motioned at all of them, "Everything, to my species' various governments. I figured now would be as good as time as any to let all of you know what I'm hoping will happen."

The lights dimmed and the area between all of them lit up with the image of the bubble they had all seen early on.

"Now, the place I'm taking us is Professor Palin's base, here." The image moved over and down for a brief moment before settling on a system outside the bubble are.

"Now, it's outside the bubble I kept mentioning, I know, but there's a reason for that." He paused a moment, "I'll get to that in a bit but, I am fairly confident that he will be able to get the people we need for a formalized first contact to listen."

Benezia cut in, "Fairly confident Marcus?"

"Well, yeah, I've been out of the bubble for months on end and while mosts things stay the same, sometimes I come back to some curveballs. I'm kinda hedging my bets with the fairly confident thing. I'm pretty sure all of you will get his attention."

The projections zoomed in to the system, the two large, blue stars taking up the view before it zoomed in to show the base's position on the surface of the planet.

"Remember how I said we'd have contact with aliens before? He studies them and all the big players listen to him."

They all thought about that for a moment, Marcus was content to let them mull it over when Benezia spoke up again.

"These aliens you've met before, what chance is there that we can meet them? I am curious."

Marcus rolled the idea round in his head, "Well, I'd say you're welcome to try but I've never heard any indication they interact much at all with anyone beyond just scanning them. I've heard rumors on galnet about attacks but…" He shrugged.

"I wouldn't even know how to contact them."

"Fair enough, I am here to make contact with Humanity after all."

Marcus just smiled and nodded at that.

"Well, like I said, we're close now. You all will get to see much more of humanity although, an engineer's base isn't much of an introduction in comfort."

With another shrug, he looked around the bridge again at the four of them.

"Are we ready?"

The four of them exchanged looks before Benezia spoke up, an amused smirk on her face, "Commander Marcus, we've been ready since we left Council space."

Suddenly, Velictus looked like he had forgotten something as he got out of the chair and motioned to Benezia.

"You enjoy the jumps more than I do Matriarch, I think the final approach to human space is yours."

Benezia nodded, unlatched and pulsed blue a moment as she gracefully floated out of her seat and into the one adjacent to Marcus'. Velictus made a much less graceful move to now unoccupied chair while mumbling about his null-gravity.

With a chuckle, the seats turned back forward and they were treated to a view of the gas giant and it's moons slowly coming into view. The gas giant a reddish smudge with points of light that were its moons to each side of it.

With a thought, the destination changed to the next system and he engaged the FSD.

"Next jump puts us in the Pleiades sector. We'll be getting a good view of some much younger stars now. Larger too."

They all watched as the numbers counted down, the four of them would know how to count down from five in English at the very least once this was all over and done with.

As the surge built and finally burst into hyperspace, Marcus flexed his fingers on the controls as he watched the colors and lights go by.

A second passed.

Then another.

Then a third.

A bit of concern crept up into Marcus as the jump passed what felt right. His hand tightened on the controls just as the first errors popped up and the ship shook.

He could hear the hull flex as the the hud's projections flickered, double images trying to coalesce into the correct projection. Looking outside the ship he couldn't hear the exclamations of the others on the bridge as the view spun and he felt his stomach drop when he saw the error.

"Unstable Hyperspace Corridor."

The sounds on the bridge broke through his confusion, Benezia was holding on tightly to the chair and asking in a raised and worried voice.

"Marcus, what is happening?!"

As the ship tumbled through hyperspace, they were all about thrown across the bridge as there was a loud burst of noise as the ship snapped back into normal space.

Marcus jammed on his controls, hoping it was just a malfunction in the FSD and not what he thought it was. He managed to stop the ship from tumbling before all the power suddenly cut out and he suddenly felt much colder.

"Oh...shit."

Those two words from him caught the undivided attention of the four aliens he had on the bridge.

Benezia's face was tight with concern, "Oh no what Commander Marcus? What was that?"

"Remember those aliens I said Professor Palin studies? I knew I should have kept my mouth shut..." Marcus heard some cursing behind him.

He looked back to see Uolon and Odoln shaking their arms before Odoln looked up at him and then to Benezia.

"Matriarch, our Omni-tools are not working. Whatever knocked out power was…."

They all felt it before they saw or heard it. From the left side of the ship it moved into view, the stuttered, deep clicking vibrating noises that they felt in their bones as they watched it move.

They all watched as the strangely organic, ship moved in front of them and turned. The ship had eight petal-shaped sections radiating from a central orb. The hull was mottled greenish-dark green colors with lights along one edge of each of the petal-shapes. There were distortions in space behind it, obvious by the waving and flickering light of the stars it passed.

"Marcus...is that?"

The ship paused and seemed to regard them all with a cold interest.

"A Thargoid Benezia, that is a Thargoid."

Any further conversation or questions was cut short as the sounds became more intense. A series of deep, vibrating clicking was heard as the 'petals' of the ship lit up a light, sickly green color.

The petals shifted out and away from the center bulb on the ship. Everyone jumped as if they'd been shocked as twisting green light suddenly filled their entire view, the ship behind it thrumming and clicking as it swept the strange, otherworldly light across and through the ship.

Odoln managed to weakly lift his arm and attempt to activate his Omni-tool for a moment before a thought hit him.

' _There's no power...how can we_ _hear_ _that thing.'_

The light flickered and twisted across the ship as they all grit their teeth against the thrumming, clicking vibration as it continued for seconds. Marcus just sat, glaring at the ship.

Then suddenly, it stopped. The lights on the strange ship dimmed as the petals began to shift closer to the center bulb as it started to turn.

Marcus sat up and got ready to take control again to jump out of system as soon as power came back.

"I've heard of this, they pull you out of hyperspace to sca-"

He was interrupted as the ship suddenly stopped, the lights on the ship flickering on, first a light blue, then yellow, back to blue while they all endured the rapid clicking pulsing out from the ship.

"Ok, that's…"

The ship suddenly turned back to them, the petals extended out and the lights settling into a menacing red color, emanating a series of decidedly angry sounds.

Marcus jammed on the controls before pushing a few buttons frantically but futility on his chair. The other four took notice of this and shifted in their seats.

"Commander Marcus, what is going on?!" Benezia's voice had risen with concern as they all watched the strange ship. Suddenly, a number of small things burst from behind the ship and began tracing strange coordinated orbits around the ship which added a considerable layer of concern to all onboard.

Marcus was about to get out of his chair and attempt another method to restore power.

"I've never seen them attack before, I don't know!"

Suddenly there was a flash beyond the strange ship. The narrow, arrow shape of a ship could be seen that caused Marcus to pause in what he was doing. The strange ship took notice as well, the motion of the small things that it had just launched seem to increase in speed and tightened around it as it began to turn towards the newcomer.

There were three more flashes as other ships arrived. One like the first, the second, a larger, gleaming white ship of graceful curves and power. Two engine nacelles off to each side of the body. The third ship was almost as wide as it was long, blocky and resembling more of a shipping container with engines and a spoiler. The fourth ship they could barely make out, obviously smaller than the other three but it started buzzing around erratically.

The five of them were knocked out of their surprise as the first ship turned and darted towards the strange ship suddenly, large weapons folding out of the top of the ship that flashed suddenly. The flash of light and lurching motion of the strange ship seemed to break whatever the ship had done to power down the ship.

The lights on the bridge flickered back on and tests flashed by as the ship did emergency diagnostics. Marcus watched the progress anxiously while keeping an eye on the ships outside. The strange ship having abandoned whatever it had planned for them in favor of fighting the newcomers.

* * *

The lights flickered back on and she couldn't help but watch as the four new ships began dancing around the strange ship, the flash of shields, the impact of weapons on the strange ship. The large ships moving much more like fighters than the ships of that size she was used to seeing. Glittering bits of the greenish-organic hull spun off into space from the Thargoid before she suddenly felt the ship move.

The view of the fighting ships panned out of view as she heard the engines on Marcus' ship build to full power as she was pressed into her chair. She looked over at Marcus, whose hands were working furiously over the controls that she and the other three could no longer see.

She looked out at where they were going but while she could see through the viewports, there was no more information than any other area they had been able to see before the strange ship had powered down his ship.

"Marcus, what-" She was interrupted as the ship shuddered and she saw a blue light flash to one side of them followed by a string of what she could only assume were in his native language and from the pace and vehemence he was saying them, quite colorful.

Just then she heard a shift in the tone of the engines, as if something was building up. She pressed back into her seat, gripping the arm rests as she began to hope the ship wasn't going to explode when suddenly it felt as if someone had dropped a building on her.

She heard herself wheeze as the air was force out of her and the edges of her vision began to rapidly darken before it suddenly relented.

She felt she would have rebounded out of the seat because of how hard she had resisted the sudden weight but was kept in as the chair had molded around her. Now she gasped for air as lights danced in her eyes.

There was a small, brief shudder that she barely registered and she felt all weight lift off her. The lights faded and she could make sense of what she was seeing again as the ship turned.

For a moment the only sound was the ship, the ever-present background hum of the ship as it traveled.

Then she heard some noise and looked back to see Odoln and Velictus getting up and rushing back to Uolon. He was floating up and away from the back wall.

"Uolon! Uolon, c'mon, say something." Velictus reached him and with one hand grabbing onto one of the hand holds on the wall, the other reached out and pulled Uolon towards Velictus and Odoln. The latter, looking all business with a hint of relief as he brought his arm up and his Omni-tool lit up.

Uolon stirred at the motion and voice of Velictus as Odoln waved his Omni-tool over him. Benezia kept quiet as she watched.

"Is he ok?" She looked back over suddenly at Marcus who had turned his seat to face back, getting up out of his chair and gliding back towards them.

Odoln didn't look up from his Omni-tool as he scanned him. "Concussion, loss of consciousness from sudden and extreme acceleration. He will survive and recover."

Benezia drifted out of her chair towards them.

"Commander Marcus, do Thargoids always attack like that? You seemed quite surprised when it turned back towards us."

Marcus floated near the four of them, holding on to the ceiling as Velictus and Benezia regarded him.

"No, I've only ever heard of them scanning ships and then leaving. I wasn't really worried at first. Just when it turned back."

He ran a hand back through his hair. It did not go unnoticed that it was shaking.

"Things have changed since I left the bubble. The Pleiades have been where the Thargoids have interdicted pilots in the past but the hostility?"

He was shaking his head before he looked back to Uolon who had by now, opened his eyes and seemed to be going through a series of motions to see what was hurt. He flinched as he rotated his shoulder.

Benezia looked closer at him, trying to see if he was ok.

"I'm sorry Uolon, I had to get out of there as fast as I could. I had to boost to get away from the mass lock of those ships. They were just about right in between us and the next jump or I'd have just high-waked out."

Blinking rapidly as Marcus spoke to him, "Are we out of danger now?"

"Yeah, they only interdict ships out of hyperspace jumps and I'm willing to be they'll be busy with the other ships that jumped in. I'd say we're safe."

He made his way back to his seat and sat in it, "As far as I know."

"Marcus, the Thargoids, why did they do that?"

"No clue, we fought a war with them a while back. They'd been quiet until they started scanning us and running. They knock the power out on the ship they interdict which is nerve wracking enough."

He began to work the controls again, his hands working over the projections they couldn't see.

"Marcus, could you…" He turned to look at her, she motioned towards the area the hud projections had been. He looked confused for a moment before looking back down at the screens he could see and back at her.

After a moment she heard him apologize and the projections popped back into view.

"Ok, we were lucky the other Commanders showed up." A message popped up, written in English.

"They're apparently hunting the Thargoid, or as they call them, the bugs. Saved our asses, that's for sure."

He watched as Uolon pushed away from the wall and drifted back to where he had been before the whole fiasco.

Marcus looked him over, "Are you sure you're ok? Odoln said you would be alright and would recover."

Uolon nodded, "Yes, bruised and rattled but will be fine. Do you have a way to prevent that from happening again?"

Marcus shook his head, "No, I'll get in touch with those other Cmdrs to see if they'll be willing to follow us to Palin's base though. Chase off any other Thargoids if needed. If they agree."

"Those were other Commanders, this far from the bubble?" Benezia's concern was trumped by her curiosity.

Marcus nodded, "If the 'goids are active around here, I imagine there's a more than a few of us flying around the Pleiades looking for them. The war was not a good one…."

He turned his seat around as he said that, trailing off as he switched between screens.

Benezia looked back at the other three, all with the same concern written on her face. This would complicate things.

* * *

Marcus was still thinking of new ways to curse, insult, or otherwise defame the damn Thargoids. Not only was just getting interdicted by them a great way to screw things up, then they apparently decided they were in a shooting war!

He grimaced as the thought of getting blown up ten jumps from bringing Benezia and the others to Palin as the connection he had sent out finally opened.

' _CMDR, I'll thank you again for helping me out just now. I've been out of the bubble for months and months and didn't realize that the Pleiades were a Thargoid shooting gallery. Did you manage to murder the damn thing?'_

' _I'd say your welcome but it was really just a happy accident. Yes, we did get the bug. A couple of its buddies jumped in near the end though so we bugged out - haha - If you've not been in the bubble for a while you may want to get the hell out of the pleiades. Damn bugs are showing up with a bigger bite and no exploracanda's gonna survive.'_

' _Damn, any new insults we have for them? I've got to get to Professor Palin and it's pretty time-sensitive. How much for you to wing up with us to get us there?'_

' _Us?'_

Marcus grimaced, while in the past he had another pilot along to fly a fighter, no one ever really took a fighter out exploring and he didn't want to try to explain who was with him.

' _Eh, me, been out in the black too long, my ship doesn't talk much but she takes good care of me.'_

' _You explorers are weird but you did just win me a hundred credits. Price to wing up and escort you to Palin's - fifteen million OR five million and your exploration data. Fairly reasonable considering how treacherous this cluster can be nowadays. It'd break my heart to find your wreckage and have to scoop your black box. Damn shame that'd be.'_

Marcus stared at the message trying to calm down, unsuccessfully however as he slammed his fist on the chair and nearly yelling.

"Fucking murderhobos!"

His anger was interrupted when he heard Benezia ask what was wrong, his outburst having interrupted the quiet conversation they had been having amongst themselves.

He mumbled an apology before going back to the message.

' _Five million now good enough a down payment? I'll pay the rest once we get to Palin's'_

' _Five now? The rest after you get your pretty little ship down to Palin's. Don't worry if you 'forget' to pay the rest. I've got buddies that'll be more than happy to remind you all around there.'_

Marcus blinked at the wing request and with a command, sent the five million credits.

Suddenly the wing voice channel opened and he quickly sent a command to keep it off the intercom. He didn't really want the Council ambassadors to know he'd have to rely on a pirate to get him to Palin's

' _HA! Haha! Now c'mon, let's get this show on the road! I've still got some bugs I want to get to today. Jump to the next system. Anything happens in this one, we'll be on the bugs like stink on biowaste.'_

With a twinge of regret Marcus accepted the situation and aimed at the destination system. The other four's conversation died down as the computer voiced the FSD and countdown.

"We've got an escort for the last jumps we'll meet in the next system."

The countdown almost reached the end, "Sorry about everything, just been away too long."

Anything they said in response was drowned out as they time, Marcus wasn't as enthusiastic about the last leg of the trip.

* * *

His bridge was a bit of a mess there were stains on the surfaces, empty food canisters floated around, a few personal weapons could be seen floating around bumping into things. He didn't really care, he'd been in the ship for longer than he was used to but considering he held his ships with about as much regard as he did ammo for his weapons, he didn't really bother cleaning up. The Viper would explode soon anyway.

He watched the readout on the members of his wing, his current three 'companions' were waiting near him. One he wasn't actively planning on killing, although he still had a plan to do so, the other two he'd give a try once he got bored hunting the bugs.

The name on the list he was interested in however, was the new addition. His thoughts were interrupted when a voice cut into his musings.

"Hey boss, when we jumping this guy?" A vicious smile cut it's way across his face, bags under his eyes that were nearly covered by his ragged and oily hair that fell forward as he looked down at the radar hud showing where the other ships were.

"Oh, I don't know, I thought I'd go straight for a while. Help a fellow Commander out to really….ah...a-tone for mah sins." The smile never left his face.

There was a burst of noise as the other two joined the channel and were laughing as hard as they could.

After a moment it died down, "Seriously."

That prompted him to actually put some thought into it, he hadn't _planned_ to shoot him when he offered. It had really just been a whim that he threw out the offer. A bit of easy credits. Most explorers either just ran or didn't put up a fight. Sometimes he could get the data and make something off it, other times not. He'd already made more than he'd thought he would so far today.

"We took his money, we'll get him where he's going, then he pays us and we go back to the bugs. Or he doesn't and we rifle through his pockets. Preferably with something large-caliber."

"Ha! Easy enough"

The channel lit up with one of the two he planned on trying to kill later, "That you're plan? That's what the Commander Gr-"

"AH-AH-AH fuck-o" He targeted the Cutter, closing distance and circling behind it, "You don't say my name. I'm boss to you unless you'd like to add a killmark to my ship?"

"Whatever." The channel cut but the Cutter sat in space and they were all quiet until he decided there was no fun to be had yet. He stopped circling the larger ship and un-targeted it.

"They've landed the next system over and there's nothing on them, we've got nine more of these. So start the clock, twenty minutes until we're shooting something."

Seconds later, four flashes left the system empty.

* * *

He walked over to the table at the far end of the medium sized hangar. The training Python taking up the majority of the 100m x 70m hangar. He watched as the six of them walked around the FSD pulled out of the ship before coming together near the subsystem he'd asked about.

The holographic overlay of the components hung in the air as he watched the group talk amongst themselves quietly. A frown made its way to his face, the question he asked shouldn't have taken this long. One of the hopefuls stole a glance his way and stiffened when she saw his frown.

Shaking his head slightly he set the data pad down, he didn't really need it but he had liked this group so he had decided to not use the "unnerving, critical Professor" act. Something he was reconsidering before his attention was interrupted by the muted pull as his mindcom signaled him that one of his provenly-competent aides had a message for him.

He dismissed it as he walked slowly towards the woman that had glanced a moment ago, intent on seeing why the six of them couldn't answer his question. This test was a critical one if they hoped to be employed at his base assisting him in the upgrades he offered. Services he offered mainly to get the Pilot's Federation's Commanders to do the sourcing for the harder-to-get components for him. That he got to put his wisened Professor face on and teach on occasion was a bit of a bonus.

"It was really a simple question. Why? Do we use the Selenium in the heat dispersion plate and not in the heat _exchangers_?"

Another pull from his mindcom, this time with an added urgency. His right eye twitched slightly as he dismissed it again, keeping his focus on the six of them. He looked between them as they fidgeted a bit, the woman went to say something before he cut her off, leaning in to the group slightly as he did.

"If you want to work within this Institute, I expect you to know off the top of your head. You all have been fitted with mindcoms, if you don't know it, run a query."

A message notice suddenly overlayed part of his vision, obscuring the face of one of the students to his left. He sighed as he recalled his order to his aide to not be disturbed while assessing the small group of junior engineers.

He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his back, "I did not pay for them for you to not use them."

He turned and made for the door leading out, "I will be back, proceed through the next section of the FSD but stop before you make it to the mass systems. They're too delicate with the tools we have right now."

As he passed the threshold of the door and it slid shut behind him, he went to open the message and had started to read it while he turned the first corner towards his office when he ran into his aide, knocking him back a step. The aide stumbled back a bit over the crates of tools and supplies that were lined up on one side of the large corridor.

His frown deepening after the small disappointment of the six engineers he had just left, he waited for his aide to compose himself.

"Daniel, I told you I didn't want to be disturbed unless there were either Federation, Empire, or Thargoid ships knocking on our door."

"I know and it's not any of those three but...well, it was a Commander. He found something."

His interest was piqued, Daniel was accomplished in his own right and he actually trusted him with the oversight of some of his Thargoid projects. If he said something had been found then it was bound to be at least worth his time.

Although, "Something? They're always finding 'something'. You'll have to be a bit more specific…"

He trailed off as he saw something in Daniel's hand he hadn't noticed before, a palm-sized grey disk with a dial on it. He caught a glimpse of the words "Heavier" and "Lighter" on it before Daniel reached over and placed it on one if the crates with a small clunking sound as if it was magnetic.

His eyebrow raised as Daniel turned the dial to "Lighter", when Daniel let go of the device there was a pause as he looked up at him and he could see the excited look on his face. Suddenly he felt the hair on his arm closest to the crate raise slightly and a wispy, blue glow surrounded the crate as it floated up slowly off the floor.

For the first time in a while, he could genuinely say he was surprised as he experimentally pushed the crate and it bounced of the one behind it and drifted up like it was in null-g.

He looked up at Daniel with, now actually excited, "How?!"

"The message I sent you? A Commander made….first contact with someone. He wouldn't say who or what but he did say they gave him this to give to you to get your attention." Daniel now had a goofy smile on his face as he pushed the crate up towards the ceiling.

"Where are they now?"

Daniel took his eyes off the crate and his face straightened out, "Large dock hangar, he's in an Anaconda but wouldn't leave his ship."

He watched the crate for a second before answering, "If he's got more of this." he motioned at the floating crate, "I can understand him not wanting to leave."

They were interrupted by a small chirping sound, drawing their eyes to the device on the crate as a red overlay began to flash along with the chirp. Both of them began to back up as the beeping got faster before a final flash of red. The blue haze that had surrounded the crate blinked out and the crate smashed into the floor on its edge.

Daniel stepped closer and he heard the device drop to the floor. He stepped to the side the device had been attached to and got to see the dent in the alloy flooring of the corridor the crate had made when it fell.

"What was in that crate?"

Daniel tried to flip the crate back up to look in it but couldn't move it. He stood back up and flipped through something with his mindcom, the far-off look he got when doing so, finally stopping and focused back on Palin, reading the entry he had been looking for.

"It has 800 kgs of the high-density composites…" Daniel looked back at the small device in his hand and then up to him.

Nodding, Palin turned and made for the large pad hangars, Daniel falling in behind him.

"Well, let's go meet this Commander…" Glancing over expectantly at his aide.

"Commander Rein, Marcus Rein."

"Commander Rein, also, lock down his hangar. Use the corrosive cargo protocols. I want to know what Commander Rein has before anyone else gets involved."

* * *

Marcus closed the station services menu and watched as the mechanical arms folded out from the ceiling and went about the rapid work of applying the paint to his ship. Cheap and it didn't really make a difference but with his guests he didn't want Lucy to be looking shoddy for longer than necessary.

The painting took a handful of seconds. It was the basic paint job but that step never took too long. He heard a few muted clunks as the hull integrity and power plant went through the process of being repaired as well.

He turned when he saw Benezia sit back in the seat next to his.

"I have to say, I'm hoping Spectre Odoln's idea with that Mass Effect device catches Palin's attention. I really don't want to try to walk all of you off the ship to get their attention."

"Since your species is unable to manipulate mass in any way, I think it will be a suitable demonstration. It is common place for us but so are your hyperspace-capable ships to you and that caught our attention."

She raised an eyebrow at him as she said that and he couldn't help but to laugh a bit, "Yeah, I'm just worried someone will do something stupid with it. Put it on themselves and turn it all the way up."

Oldon walked up behind the two of them, looking out as the hangar bay continued the work Marcus had ordered.

"It was hastily fabricated but there are failsafes. It must be on a solid surface and flat." He opened his Omni-tool and showed Marcus the design again like he had when he brought the idea up.

"Eh, it's just a thought -" He was cut off as suddenly lights started flashing in the hangar and he stood up just in time to see emergency doors shut over the doors leading out of the hangar. Mechanical sounds thudded through the ship as the work being done was interrupted.

Suddenly, projected screens popped up at each console, A Yellow and black notice with the words "Corrosive Cargo Lockdown" In large, bold letters.

Marcus looked across his bridge and then back to Benezia and Odoln, the other two rushing up to see what was happening.

"Well, I think we got their attention."

Marcus sat back down and began to go through his cargo tab, lingering on the 2-ton cargo container marked salvage. The memory of the shuttle drifting out of a large alien ship came to his mind before he was interrupted.

"Commander Marcus, it appears there is someone here to see us."

Marcus got up and looked out where Odoln was looking, seeing two people standing just inside the door he had just seen sealed. After a moment he recognized one of them as Professor Palin.

"HA! They got the message it seems." He turned and motioned for the door on the bridge, "Well, let's not keep them waiting!"

* * *

Palin watched as the ramp lowered and someone, he assumed Commander Rein, walked down the ramp with a bit of swagger. He and his assistant met the Commander under the nose of the Anaconda.

Reaching his hand out to shake hands, "Commander Rein, I admit, I don't usually take my time to meet face-to-face but this," he waves the now inert device, "certainly got my attention."

The Commander grinned at that, "Well, yeah, not my idea but I'm glad it worked. I'll have to thank Odoln for that."

"Odoln?" An odd name but he'd heard stranger although it was odd that an explorer would take another pilot with them.

"So what can you tell me about where you found this? I've not had the chance to take it apart yet to see how it works but anti-gravity could be _very_ useful."

Another grin, "Well, I didn't find that actually. Odoln built it. He's one of the four new, uh, friends I made."

Palin just raised an eyebrow at that.

"...How about I just let you meet them?"

Before he could interject, Commander Rein turned and said something in a language he'd never heard before. It actually sounded rather odd coming from him in that it was a breathy and melodic language.

Turning his attention to the ramp as he heard footsteps and saw the legs of those coming out to meet him. He took a step back as the figures made their way down the ramp, surprise rising alarmingly as he realized the legs weren't the right shape..

The first being down the ramp was tall and oddly proportioned. The knee joint bent back the wrong direction along with an extra joint. The chest of the being was narrow and sunken while the limbs muscled weirdly. The biggest surprise for him was the head, more specifically the face.

Large eyes darted around, looking at everything, set in a head with two fleshy horns, no nose, and a low-set, wide, and thin mouth. As the alien finished its look around he met its eyes and could almost feel himself being appraised. The alien's gaze held for a second before it seemed to nod and step to the side, somehow exuding an aura of awareness and casual competence.

The second one down was, if anything, more startling. They could have passed for a woman if it weren't for the blue skin, lack of ears, and weird ridges instead of hair. He met her deep, blue eyes for a moment and suddenly felt very much like he had when meeting with his older colleagues. Her eyes had a depth to them that only living a very long time could produce although what appeared to be a smirk on her face at his reaction.

She approached him and after he finally tore his eyes from hers, he noticed another alien much like the first behind and to one side of the blue alien, the fourth was another shock.

The last alien seemed to be the most...alien out of all of them. The first thing about it was that it was tall, at least a head above the other three. Greyish skin with large scales covered it's body with the face seemingly comprised of small, movable scales if the expression it wore was any indication. The flat face with two hard, movable protrusions off to each side combined with being able to see it's teeth set Palin on edge slightly. The small, deep-set eyes looked him over as well before taking his place slightly behind and to the other side of the blue alien.

His eyes darted between the four aliens but was interrupted by an odd growling, whistling chirp from the last alien, quickly followed by the same sounding language that the Commander had spoken right before the aliens came down the ramp. Although it was flatter and seemed to come from a band on it's wrist.

Commander Rein answered the whistle-chirp alien in the strange language again and to his intense surprise, the alien seemed to laugh quietly to itself!

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke him from his surprised stupor.

"He said 'I think we broke him'" He stared at the Commander for a moment before realizing his mouth was open, closing it quickly.

"Commander, these are aliens!" He motioned at them offhandedly.

"And your powers of perception are finely honed I see! Yes, I met them while out exploring. Ah, in case you didn't hear, The first one is Spectre Odoln, he's the one that made that device. The second is Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. Then you have Uolon and Velictus."

He pointed at each of them, "Salarian, Asari, Salarian, Turian."

There was a moment as Palin took this in as Commander Rein stood there with a smug look on his face.

"Work enough for the day don't you think Professor?"

"Work? YES! You met a race, no, three races of aliens! They're friendly I assume?" His excitement quickly built as it all sank in. They weren't Thargoids but he wasn't too interested in having four of those in his hangar.

"Yes, quite friendly so far. There are some that aren't, some are quite the shitheads actually but we'll get to that, none of those are with me."

Palin's next question was interrupted by the blue alien speaking in the same language the Commander had spoken but in a decidedly more enjoyable tone.

"Commander, I don't know how you can speak their language but it sounds much, much better coming from that one than you."

The Commander seemed flustered for a moment.

"She's an Asari, Matriarch T'Soni." He responded before turning to the her and speaking to her again. She suddenly looked a bit embarrassed! He could actually tell that she looked embarrassed before she responded and the four aliens seemed to get a bit of amusement at what was said.

The moment passed quickly before she straightened and her face took on a decidedly official look, he did the same on reflex. It seemed it was down to business then.

The language she spoke again sounded beautiful to him and he recognized the word human but little else. Once she stopped he was about to ask the Commander to translate before he began to do so.

"She bids you welcome and asks that you help her and her companions setup an official first contact with the Human governments." Commander Rein had a bit of a smile on his face.

"From what I understand she's a fairly accomplished and respected figure in their government with full power to arrange an amiable meeting."

The Asari continued and Commander Rein translated, "We of the Citadel Council greet you in the name of peace and mutual prosperity."

Palin processed what he heard, "While I do not represent my species governments I do have the ability to contact them about this. We can move to a more comfortable location if you'd like while I get in touch with them."

The Commander's low voice translated for him and she smiled and responded. The sound the Commander made after she had spoken caught all but her by surprise. The almost startled cry drew his attention and he was rather surprised and confused to see a look of almost panic on the Commander's suddenly pale face.

He choked out a quiet reply as the Asari turned to Commander Marcus, a worried look on her face (It was unnerving how _human_ she looked)

The two spoke quickly and quietly to each other and while Palin couldn't understand, she seemed to be apologizing to the Commander while asking him for something. After a pause while the Commander seemed to think and regain his color, he shook his head, mumbled something to her and composed himself.

"Professor Palin, there is a way for you to learn their languages quickly. It's how I...learned...it. My experience was extremely, uh" He seemed to fidget a bit before continuing, "uncomfortable but Benezia is quite insistent that my experience was unique and extreme."

"What do you mean?"

"I-well, they can, the Asari I mean, they can do some sort of 'meld' that lets two people pass information between each other. Apparently regardless of species."

"What happened to you that you seem so shaken up mentioning it?"

Commander Rein just shook his head, "I'm not going to talk about it now but I'd suggest your assistant try first."

Palin suddenly remembered that Daniel had come in with him and looked over at his assistant, not at all surprised to seem him paying full attention to what was happening with a data pad in hand.

"Daniel, are you willing to do this 'meld'?"

To his credit, he didn't even hesitate, "Yes Professor, it could be dangerous," the three of them didn't miss the Commander barely flinch at that, "but this is _first contact_ with a friendly group of aliens!"

He hit a few things on his datapad and stepped forward purposefully to stand in front of the Asari. Marcus spoke to her quietly and took a step back and turned away. He would really have to ask him about what happened. She threw him an apologetic look before stepping closer to Daniel, putting her hands on each side of his head, and closing her eyes.

When she opened her eyes again, he was curious to see that they were now entirely black as she spoke something that, even him not understanding the language, seemed to hold weight. As soon as she did, both her and Daniel stopped moving entirely. They didn't stiffen, they just...stopped moving. The subtle motion of a bipedal being balancing while standing stopped and they were statues.

Palin watched for a moment before opening his mindcom and pulling up the cameras for the hangar they were in, he could see them all standing there and he confirmed it was and had been recording before cutting off the feed. Putting his attention back to the two of them, he stepped closer.

Before he got too close however, they both suddenly relaxed, she closed her eyes and when she opened them they were back to the blue they had been.

He looked to Daniel and was very surprised when he, with a giddy look on his face, said something in her language! She smiled and answered before the other aliens spoke. The two...Salarians he recalled, had a squeaky, rapid-fire language but to his surprise, Daniel nodded at what they said and then tried to answer in the same language. Much to the alien's amusement. The Asari said something and Daniel nodded and answered the Salarian in the Asari language. The same thing was repeated to the tall alien before Daniel looked back to him.

"Professor, I can understand all of them! I can't speak all of their languages but I can understand them! It was incredible, our minds connected and she...er, taught me all the languages. Not really taught, it was more like I just remembered them from her but still, most of the time in the Meld was spent with me thinking about English."

"Wait, she knows English now?"

He jumped at the voice that spoke next, the Asari had a very regal tone to her voice that pulled his attention to it.

"Yes Professor Palin, I have as much a grasp on the English language now as I do any of my other languages."

Holding out her hand, she continued, "I am Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, you may call me Matriarch T'Soni as is traditional in our culture."

He shook her hand gently, "That is incredible! Very pleased to meet you, you may call me Professor or simply Palin. I look forward to discussing the how of the 'meld' but before that, we really should make our way to my office, it's much more comfortable than this hangar Matriarch T'Soni."

"If I may take a moment to transfer my understanding of English to my companions then I will be happy for us to go."

He nodded and she went to each of the other aliens, her eyes going black although this time, for his benefit he assumed, he heard her declare "Embrace Eternity" in english each time.

Once finished, she turned to him and he motioned for them all to follow Daniel. As he turned to walk in-step with Matriarch T'Soni, he noticed that Commander Rein, who had walked a distance away from them and was now coming back.

He waved to him, "You're invited as well Commander, come! I imagine there's a lot to discuss."

He saw Commander Rein nod and follow, the Salarian who had been down the ramp first fell in next to him and they all made their way through his base.

He heard some quiet question from the Salarian parroted in the Asari's speech that the Commander answered.

"No, not that, just...it's out of my hands now huh?

A look passed over his face before Palin suddenly saw an incoming notification. A cargo transfer with a message.

' _They're friendly enough and I'm really interested in how this will all go but I did meet them after I got caught in a pirate attack in their space. I mention that because I don't think they know that I've picked up a smaller ship of the pirate's. If I'm correct it has an example of their engines, FTL, shields, and weapons. I feel a bit bad about it but something made me keep from mentioning it. I've transferred it to you since you're setup to study alien stuff._

 _Hope this won't blow up in our face_

 _-Marcus_

Palin blinked the message away and made note that Commander Rein basically ignored him as he passed by him in the doorway, Palin stepping through after him. As the doors closed, he sent the command and the transfer was accepted and he lifted the lockdown.

The day just got better for Professor Ishmael Palin.

* * *

 **White House - Olympus Mons - Mars (10 hours later)**

Within the heavily fortified but aesthetically pleasing White House of the Federation, behind the doors the public never saw behind and where most of the actual work of administering the Federation went on, things were calm. Everyone went about their business like usual. All except a select few that had received a message. The individual in charge of vetting messages that were bound for the President was in an uproar when a message was received from one Professor Palin. He quickly sent his assistant to the President to clear his schedule while he gathered what he needed.

The assistant was nearly running through the halls, weaving around the other employees and members of the current administration without raising any eyebrows. There was always some aide or assistant darting through the crowds, always something vitally important to someone behind these locked doors.

As the assistant approached the large, ornate doors leading into President Hudson's office, she stopped for a moment to gather her wits and process through the security. Submitting to the requirements and a quick flash of the datapad she carried with the coded level of urgency received a nod from the two security guards on each side of the doors. She waited nervously as they sent the notice and waited for the President to allow access.

She resisted the urge to fidget while she waited and nearly jumped when the doors suddenly swung open and she heard the President call her to enter.

In a rush she moved to the front of the desk, the President was finishing typing something up, finishing as she stopped.

"Mr. President, we've received a message from The Palin Institute, from Professor Palin specifically. The Secretary of Communications directed me to pass this to you and urge you to clear your schedule to see him. He's gathering what he needs to present a clearer picture. We've had contact with aliens." She held out the datapad to him.

The President raised an eyebrow and was about to say something before his gaze settled on the datapad, surprise showing in his eyes as he noticed the urgency. He snatched the pad from the assistant and pressed his thumb to the pad, confirming it was him about to read it.

Security protocols engaged, the doors to his office swung shut with a muffled whump of displaced air, the assistant did jump and let out a small sound of surprise. They both felt their hairs raise for a second as a shield was activated around the room. The President didn't spare a glance at her as he read the synopsis of the message received but as he reached the end he frowned.

He looked the Secretary's assistant dead in the eye, "He is _absolutely_ sure about this?"

The assistant nodded, "Yes Mr. President."

The President stood turned back to his terminal and sent out a message calling for an quiet but urgent meeting with his cabinet.

After doing that, he looked back to the assistant with a much more intense look than what she was comfortable with, "Take a seat over there, I trust you understand to stay quiet about all of this?"

The assistant could only nod.

* * *

 **Imperial Palace - Capital (1 hour after Message was received)**

At the same time the President convened his cabinet, light years away the Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval had done much the same, having received the same message.

She looked out at all of the Senators in the secret session, dragging the moment out before she began.

"Senators of the Empire, today we are faced with a monumental event! I have, just an hour ago, received word from the Palin Institute, from Ishmael Palin himself, that a Commander has recently returned from the dark."

She paused again, a bit of theatrics and gravitas was due for something like this.

"He returned not only with word of meeting, but with members of no less than three of ten alien species!"

Immediately there was an uproar, quickly silenced with a subdued but noticeable motion from the Emperor. After the noise died down, she continued.

"The same message I received was sent to both the Federation and the Alliance leaders. I have communicated with them and it has been agreed that this will be kept in the strictest of confidence and secrecy until more is known."

"Given the fact that all three human powers are aware of this, we have agreed to send an ambassadorial team to the...neutral location of the Palin Institute to conduct the initial contact."

Murmuring could be heard as the Senators all talked amongst themselves for a moment, drowned out as the Emperor continued.

"As we prepare for this historic meeting, let us not forget the lessons of the past nor what future we want for ourselves. Temper your minds, your expectations, and if necessary, your swords."

The murmuring picked up, gaining volume as the Senators considered what their Emperor was telling them.

"But above all else, ready yourselves! This may be a dawning of a new age for us all!"

"Long live the Empire!"

The cry, "Long Live the Emperor!" Echoed back to her.

* * *

 **Alioth System - Garden City (4 Hours later)**

Edmund Mahon looked over the message again as the ambassadorial team left the room. As the door whispered shut he took a moment to really reflect on the enormity of what was happening. His head spun a bit before he grimaced.

He and much of his government would have liked to have taken more time with everything but no, the Federation and the Empire were rushing to the Maia system to meet with Palin and the aliens. He looked back to the data pad and corrected himself, the Council ambassadors.

Now the Alliance was forced to rush a delegation to meet them as well and since the Federation and Empire would no doubt be making a show, he had to authorize the use of one of their newest mega-ships. It would be a rush but he felt confident that the timeline that Palin had put forward to the three powers would be met.

A smirk made its way onto his face as he tossed the datapad onto the table and got up to leave the room.

' _At least this is better than the budget meetings that were scheduled.'_

* * *

 **Palin Research Centre - Maia System (2 days later)**

Marcus followed Palin up to the observation room, Benezia and the others entering the room and looking around excitedly after them.

"So they're going to arrive in a few minutes, I figured you'd all like to see their ships arrive. They said they'd all be arriving right around each other."

What he didn't say was that doing so suggested the three powers were actually coordinating which was a bit of a surprise.

' _Then again, the idea of an alien conglomerate waiting to meet the species might have lit something of a fire under their asses.'_

Palin turned to them, "You'll notice when they arrive you'll hear them arrive as well, we keep auditory simulations running to provide notice. It helps to keep from any sort of dissonance as well. Seeing but not hearing, same thing used on the ships to keep pilots from going crazy."

Marcus coughed, "Well, _more_ crazy." That got a chuckle out of all of them.

Palin shook his head and pointed out the window, "They'll arrive a few kilometers above the surface there so we should be able to get a good view."

Odoln smirked at the tactic and spoke in passable english, "A bit of a show for the visiting dignitaries Professor?"

Palin turned to him and smiled, "Never hurts to show off a bit for the new arrivals, besides, it means the major powers are taking this seriously. They don't try to impress lightly."

Suddenly the intercom interrupted, "Capital ship arriving"

They could see, a few kilometers up a dark cloud seemed to drift out of nothing, bolts of electricity arcing within the cloud as it expanded followed by a low dirge of sound punctuated by the pop-crackle of the lightning.

A moment later Palin and Marcus smirked and shared a look as they heard the gasps as a Federation Farragut Battlecruiser slid out of the dark cloud, the dirge getting deeper and almost bone-rattling before cutting off as the ship left hyperspace completely.

"Capital ship arriving"

All their eyes darted over as another dark, charged cloud materialized and the same dirge sounded across the deck. Only this time sounds of appreciation were heard as a Majestic-class Interdictor slid out of the cloud along-side the Farragut.

Palin checked the time on his mindcom, "And the Alliance should arrive…"

Suddenly there was an intense flash of light, all of them blinked and looked away for a moment. Looking back they were treated to the sight of an Alliance mega-ship arranged nearly a kilometer away from the other two.

Marcus looked back at Benezia and the others, Benezia did a good job of hiding it but he thought he could tell she was at least a little impressed. Odoln was thoughtful but the other two were almost openly surprised and impressed.

"Not a bad show huh?"

Benezia nodded, "Impressive ships as well Marcus"

Palin stepped forward, "Well, we can head to the conference room prepared for this, the ambassadors will arrive shortly."

Behind him they could all see smaller ships leave the larger ships heading in this direction before they all turned, Palin's assistant leading the way to the conference room.

"I'm sure they're all as excited to meet you as you are to meet all of them."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Well, there, we're back in the bubble! Now for a bit of mind blowing on both sides again and a setup for...finally, the meeting between the Elite: Dangerous governments and the Council!**

 **How will they react?**

 **What will they say?!**

 **WHAT IS THE AVERAGE LANDSPEED OF AN UNLADEN SWALLOW?!**

 **Tune in next(next) week to find out!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Long time getting this one out, I know. Got kind of stuck. The bits with Marcus were simple enough but the other characters, especially the Elite characters were a bit harder seeing as I had to model them around the basic feel of the three governments. Of which there's not much in the game and I've not read the books.**

 **Anyway, here's another chapter, a bit shorter but it'll pick up once they get to where they're all going.**

* * *

" _So Marcus, how did Professor Palin spend those days with the Council ambassador and her companions? I imagine that he was very interested in the Mass Effect technology that is still causing all sorts of exciting changes."_

" _Ah, well, yeah. Of course, up till then, the idea of actually manipulating the mass of something didn't even occur to anyone. It was something fundamental. They went over pretty much what you could find out about Eezo, uh, Element Zero as they called it, if you found some floating around out in space."_

" _So nothing...particularly technical then?"_

" _Nope, both sides were kind of politely playing things close to our chests. One thing that was said that still intrigues us is that the concentration of the element is almost entirely around or in proximity of the Council space that's connected by the relays."_

" _Oh?"_

" _Yep, no idea why or, more likely, we've been by it but the galaxy's gigantic so we just didn't know to look for it and it's literally laying everywhere but the tiny percent of the galaxy we've been to."_

" _Did the topic of why the relay system the Council uses was focused on the clusters of the element?"_

" _It did but, I...I got bored when they got to that. Ah..ha...I think that was about the time I started sorting through the exploration data I had."_

" _Well, all daydreaming aside, you mentioned your exploration data and that brings a question that I, and I'm sure my audience, is wondering: Once the 'Big Three' made it there and everything started getting moving through the diplomatic channels - did you ever feel like you were pushed to the side?"_

" _Pushed to the side?"_

" _Yes, once the experienced diplomats arrived, how did you, at that time, see yourself involved in what was going to happen given how much you had already showed the Council representatives?"_

" _Well, I never really felt pushed to the side so to speak and honestly, I was still sort of unwinding from everything and just going with what was happening. Didn't put much thought into what I'd do after the fact."_

" _As to what I had already told the Council people, well, of course there were those who weren't happy. There were some...uh, strong words said but in the end I was independent and besides the Alliance, had enough reputation that they were willing to not put a bounty on me."_

" _There was a statement at the time from the some groups that decried you as a traitor to the Human race for even interacting with them instead of just marking the system and leaving. Coming back to tell the authorities so to speak."_

" _Was there? I still haven't gotten used to how many people have an opinion about me now. I didn't care then and I don't care now."_

" _Some members of those groups were in the governments you contacted, did their opinion have an impact on that first meeting?"_

" _I don't think so, no."_

" _Also, there was a leaked rumor that you were actually threatened in an 'interview' shortly after the Big Three ambassadors arrived."_

" _..."_

" _Is there any substance to that rumor Marcus?"_

" _I figured someone would eventually ask about that, no. No substance to that rumor if it's the one I'm thinking about._

" _..."_

" _Ok, there were people in all three groups that were upset like I had figured they would be. Mad that I was so accommodating to the, ah what did they call them…."Assumed hostile aliens"._

" _..."_

 _*ahem* "Yeah, so some of the military people were mad but nothing terrible. The three governments weren't much bother."_

* * *

Benezia took a moment to look around the room they had just entered, having gotten word that the human ambassadors had arrived and had quickly prepared one of the base's larger rooms into a conference hall that would "Help reflect the enormity of the occasion for those involved".

Honestly, if it had been a storage hangar like the Professor had mentioned then the humans had done well very quickly. The room looked about twenty meters wide and half as tall but as they were led in through a door in what seemed to be the center of the back wall she was afforded a view of the entire room. As they walked between rows of chairs on both sides, occupied with standing and very interested humans with subdued lighting she filed that area away as those who would record the meeting. Similar to the balconies and areas around the main, public, Council chamber on the Citadel.

The back wall, which was a good thirty meters back, had no corners but both walls and ceiling curved around the back area, bringing the focus of the room to a well-lit area in the center of the curved area. The walls looked to be a wood-like material similar to some of the trees that she had seen used on Sur'Kesh. Giving a serious but warm feeling to the space.

She looked at the area that the curved walls brought the focus to and saw a half-circle table had sections for the three different governments she had heard about. The ambassadors from said governments were standing as she approached. She looked at each group as she approached.

The group on the left side were wearing a variety of regal formal clothing which was predominately dazzling white with flawless gold trim. Of the five of them, one man was positioned closest to the center stood just a little closer than the others. He wore a welcoming smile on his face. The Asari-like features of his face was framed, pleasantly she thought, with deep brown, close-cut hair. The woman in the group pulled her attention for a moment with the close resemblance to an Asari maiden. If that Asari had dark, Quarian-like hair and skin a light brown with gold undertones. Benezia had an errant thought that humans would find themselves very popular with Asari maidens.

The group on the right had a more serious air to them. Five of them wore charcoal-grey suits with hard lines and very little adornment although the serious cut of their clothing was offset by a welcoming smile on their faces that mirrored the others. The man standing closest to the center had his blonde hair combed back in a way that brought up a distant memory of the Quarian ambassador she had the pleasure of working with hundreds of years ago. Although his bright, blue eyes lacked the luminescence that the Quarians possessed, his gaze and expression was welcoming and his smile widened and he nodded at her when she looked his way.

The third group was in the center of the half-circle table and each of the four people there were dressed with more variety than the other two groups. None extravagant but formal in a way that complimented each other. The woman standing just slightly apart from the other three wore a well-fitted dark blue dress that Benezia herself would have felt appropriate to wear to this meeting. The dark red hair the ambassador looked exotic framing a face that wouldn't have looked out of place in an Thessian Extranet drama.

As her group, led by Professor Palin stopped before the group as Spectre Odoln took his place to the right of her, Uolon to the right and slightly back from him and Velictus to her left and half a step back from her.

The Professor stepped up between the two groups, facing the space between them. A slight pause pulled the attention of the room to him as he looked at the human ambassadors then motioned towards her and the others.

"Matriarch T'Soni representing the Citadel Council, an Asari hailing from Thessia." She bowed her head at the introduction.

"Spectre Odoln accompanying her. A Salarian hailing from Sur'Kesh." He nodded at the introduction.

"Uolon Soldar accompanying her. A Salarian hailing from Sur'Kesh." Uolon managed a nod and a small wave.

"Velictus Surlinus accompanying her. A Turian hailing from Palaven." Velictus stood straighter and flexed his mandibles slightly, drawing a few raised eyebrows.

Palin then looked at her and the others, motioning to the humans.

"Representing the Alliance, Holly Bastogne and her aides." The red-headed woman nodded.

"Representing the Empire, Daniel Calf and his aides." The man brought a hand to his chest and bowed his head to Benezia and the others.

"Representing the Federation, Denton Fields and his aides." He smiled at Benezia and nodded to her group.

"I, Professor Ishmael Palin, will act as mediator of these proceedings and bid you all welcome."

Looking back to Benezia, he motioned to the smaller, raised area positioned at the focus of half-circle the human representatives faced with spots for all four of them.

"Matriarch T'Soni, if you and your companions would take your seats please." He held out his arm, indicating for them to follow him.

"Of course." She nodded and followed to the table, she noted that Professor Palin took a seat between the Council ambassador's table and the half-circle of human representatives but he did not sit down as everyone else had.

Instead, Palin spoke, his voice suddenly amplified to a respectable level, "We are here today for a momentous occasion. Humanity's first contact with the Esteemed representatives of the Citadel Council."

This was met with polite and quiet applause from the humans before Palin continued, looking directly to Benezia and the others.

"As you all have taken the effort and consideration to travel the distance to meet with our species, I have the privilege of presenting a proper introduction of our species."

Suddenly, the lights in the room began dimming, growing darker, an almost inky blackness filling the room. Before it became concerning however, lights could suddenly be seen, brightening throughout the room until Benezia realized that they were stars. One in the center of the room became brighter and she suddenly felt the sensation as if she were travelling through space.

Another point of light came into view before resolving into a planet, a blue-green planet suddenly seem to take up the entire space as music swelled throughout the room. The slow swell of a pleasant wind instrument that drew attention but did not distract.

" **Earth"**

"Humanity's birthplace."

Benezia felt a smile tug at her lips as she settled in to watch the presentation, her curiosity piqued.

* * *

He slammed down into the chair, two of the large, dangerous types keeping pressure on his shoulders for an extra second as a 'polite' reminder to stay seated as they stepped back to each side of him. The other two staying to each side of the door in the hallway.

He looked around the small room, smooth metal walls, uninteresting corrugated metal flooring, and there were lights but only the one above the table was on. Casting the whole room in a dim light that only really lit up the table and vague shapes of people.

The whole situation seemed absurd to him. One minute he was going to the bathroom, a bit of a luxury since technically his remlock suit could take care of such ablutions but still, sometimes a guy's gotta take a leak. Next moment, his tech's jammed and he's carried off to a room somewhere.

' _Guess somebody wasn't happy ab-'_

His thought was interrupted when someone reached out and slammed his head into the table from behind, stars swam in his vision. He swung his head up and tried to shake it off as his eyes tried to focus on the new person now sitting across from him.

"Commander Marcus, let me be the first to congratulate you on your unprecedented discovery!"

He looked around the room at the nondescript man-shaped threats standing around the room before settling a confused look at the man across from him.

"Wha?"

He shook his head again, pressing his palm to his forehead and checking for blood, despite the pain in his head, his hand came away clean.

The man across from him leaned forward, the Federation insignia on his lapel caught the light above them brightly and he flinched slightly before the man continued, waving the datapad at him.

"An alien conglomerate government, discovered by you of course! Not the best first impression if these records from your ship are accurate. But still, congratu- _lations_ are in order."

Marcus mumbled some half-hearted thanks as his brow creased in confusion, head still swimming from the unexpected blow and jarring contrast of the man across from him and his cheery disposition. He looked around the room quickly before looking back at the man.

"Who are you and what do you mean by records?"

The man glanced down at a datapad and he made a show of looking confused for a moment, looking back up at Marcus. Then the man looked at Marcus suddenly as if just realizing he was in the room.

"Ah, yes, of course." He looked down at the tablet and it lit up, the holographic face of it scrolling through video at high speed. The man turned the tablet and held it out so both of them could see it, waving his hand at it as the video slowed down. Marcus recognized it, it was the conversation that he had had with Benezia and the others about what they saw during a hyperspace jump. His head cleared a bit, the surprise at seeing video of him on his ship must have showed on his face but the man across from him seemed to ignore his expression.

He looked over the still image and gestured at the datapad, "I may not be able to understand what all of you were saying in most of these logs but it seems I made the same mistake you did. Well, _one_ of your mistakes. I forgot that I had to turn on the actual holographic displays so you could see them."

The man set down the tablet, the small clink on the metal table drawing Marcus' attention as the figure leaned forward more, his face becoming intense.

"I usually keep them limited to just who _needs_ to see what's on our technology, security reasons of course."

He let the remark hang for a second, waiting until Marcus seemed to be about to say something before continuing.

"There are a lot of people very high up in all three governments that are rather displeased with you Commander Marcus Rein. The records and logs from your ship-"

"How did you get those? I never released those records, you have no legal right to them."

The man's face lit up in mock realization, "But of course! Not admissible in court, improperly collected, illegally withheld, all true."

The man's face went neutral and his voice even as one finger tapped on the edge of the datapad, "Problem is we're outside of any jurisdiction and your usual Pilot's Federation legal stature counts for…..well, exactly as far as someone is willing to go to get what they want Commander Marcus." His voice started flat but was filled with false cheer by the time he said Marcus' name.

A chill washed over Marcus as he realized what the man was saying, the intense look in the man's eye as he held eye contact for just a moment too long.

Suddenly the man broke out in a smile again and Marcus realized that he still had no real idea what was happening.

"That is all true of course but the Federation tends to take a dim view on it's agents taking such action. In fact, I have it on good authority that if you were to translate the audio on these records we could all just go about our days."

The man slid the datapad forward in front of Marcus and leaned back.

"And if I refuse?"

Still smiling, the man replied, "Well, our friends from the Empire-" he motioned to the guards at the door, "would be happy to take you somewhere you could live out the remainder of your life in obscurity. Working off whatever debt we all decide you owe us if this whole 'first contact' thing goes sour."

The man leaned forward slowly, putting his elbows on the table and bringing his hands together, looking over his intertwined fingers, "You can be Commander Marcus Rein, the man who introduced humanity to friendly alien life or you can be a footnote in our first contact with these aliens, someone who tragically disappeared due to unknown circumstances."

Silence stretched between them, the quiet hum of the background noise of the base and the breathing of the people in the room was the only thing heard for long seconds. Marcus wracked his brain trying to think of something.

He hadn't been particularly _against_ helping by translating the audio, hell, he'd have done it anyway before he was pulled into a room and threatened, by both the Federation, Alliance and the Empire it seemed.

Now though? With slavery hanging over his head?

Marcus shifted in his seat, the hand on his shoulder tightened slightly and he glanced up to see the very, tall, dark-haired woman pushing down on his shoulder. The slightest shake of her head got a chuckle from Marcus which made her frown slightly before he turned to look back at the man across from him.

"You know, you had me there." The man's face remained carefully neutral as Marcus smirked.

"I expected some sort of ass-chewing for showing the Council reps, er," He motioned at the video showing the four aliens, "all that stuff but it didn't _actually_ cross my mind that no one else would understand what was being said."

He leaned forward, the pressure of the hand held him for a moment, just enough as a reminder that it was there. He just looked at the hand and then up at the person attached to it before the hand left his shoulder and Marcus picked up the datapad. He moved the video forward and back in high-speed, skipping around a bit. He stopped and smirked a laugh when he saw Benezia's face on the first hyperspace jump before pausing the video and tossing the datapad in the middle of the table.

"So you just want a translation to see how high up you've got to hang me? Metaphorically of course."

The man across from him was still for a second before speaking in a flat tone and a humorless smirk, "Metaphorically, of course."

He looked up for at the ceiling a moment and huffed a laugh before looking back across the table.

"No."

"No?"

"You didn't ask _nicely_ and, AND you never introduced yourself. I've had pirates be more civil." The man across the table frowned at that before shaking his head.

"This IS us asking nicely, all three major governments agreed that you need to translate this as well as a full debriefing-"

"No." The man scowled and he looked past Marcus.

Marcus' head was suddenly slammed into the table again and his vision narrowed to a dim point of light. Everything felt like it was spinning and he was half-aware that he couldn't quite lift his head right as everything shifted uncontrollably.

After a long moment and as stars swam in his vision, he began to get his bearings again. Sound filtered into his mind as he heard a mixture of voices and the sound of the doors opening and people moving around.

His vision cleared somewhat and he lifted his head, rapidly blinking and opening his eyes as far as he could just in time to see the man that had sat across from him standing in the doorway.

"It seems you've caught the wrong sort of attention Commander Rein. Good luck."

The two halves of the door slid shut, leaving Marcus confused for a moment, his head pounding centered on a sharp pain over his left eye.

He reached up and winced as he touched an open wound, glancing at the blood on his finger as a groan escaped him.

Mumbling to himself, "Wrong sort, no shit."

Suddenly a bit of movement past his hand caught his attention and he jumped in his chair a bit as he realized someone new was in the chair across from him. The man was older, short-cropped dark hair and a well-worn appearance to him. This was a man that didn't spend much time in a ship, or if he did, spent a large amount of money making it look like he didn't.

Marcus squirmed a bit as the man just looked at him, dark green eyes appraised him. He could almost feel himself being measured, the look on the new man's face gave the impression Marcus might not actually be worth the time to speak.

After Marcus felt a bit of blood drip off his eyebrow and the tiny sound of it hitting the table he finally got impatient, "Ok, I'll bite, what in the fresh hell?"

With a grunt the man reached into his pocket and handed him a rag, "Name's Taylor Benning, here, wipe the blood off your face."

Wincing as he did so, Marcus wiped most of it off, glancing at the smear of blood on the cloth and frowning before folding the cloth over and holding it on the cut.

"So this where I just get shot?" After a moment's thought he held out his other hand over the table, "Commander Marcus Rein."

That seemed to amuse the man as he reached over and shook his hand, his grip just below painful.

"I know, I'm from the Pilot's Federation." Marcus raised an eyebrow at that.

"Huh, well, thanks for getting rid of those…." Marcus gestured at the door, "people for me."

Without acknowledging what Marcus said Taylor spoke, "Do you know what happens when a Pilot's certification is revoked?" Marcus went stock still, a chill ran through his body at those nonchalant words.

"...no."

The man just nodded, stood up and stepped to the door and it slid open.

"Turn off the jammer." without waiting for a response the doors slid shut as he sat back down and motioned to Marcus in an offhand manner.

"Connect to your ship." Marcus blinked, confused an worried before accessing his mindcom and pulling up the link to Lucy. He actually flinched as he hit an access denied message. The large crest of the Pilot's Federation in bold red across his vision.

Below the crest the words "Pilot's Certification required for interface." in an angry red.

With a shake of his head the mindcom connection shutdown and he felt his hands go clammy and a cold sweat break out on his forehead. He tried again, the same message plastered across his vision with a new line below large, red text.

"Continued unauthorized attempts will be met with immediate and appropriate security measures." He felt the hair on the back of his head raise and he recalled something about theft, high voltage, and damaged nervous systems from his Pilot's training.

He could only stare at the message for a long moment before shutting the connection again. The room suddenly felt much smaller than it had a moment ago, his mouth working as he tried to form some sort of response.

"Good, we understand each other." Reaching over Taylor slid the datapad over and Marcus took it in his hand woodenly as it lit up.

"Translate this, you get it all back." Marcus looked down at the logs then back to Taylor before nodding, he did not make the mistake of thinking it was a question.

"And if the Pilot's Federation doesn't like what's in these logs?"

Taylor flashed a humorless smile, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

Marcus just cleared his throat and hit play, beginning the translation.

* * *

The presentation ended showing Benezia walk down the ramp of Commander Rein's ship and the lights of the presentation dimmed as the lighting in the room brightened.

Professor Palin stood and turned towards the Council ambassadors and was mildly surprised to see that the four of them were standing and politely clapping. He took a moment to make eye contact and offered a small bow to Matriarch T'Soni. He drew in a breath to speak, opening the floor to questions before he was cut off by the Matriarch.

"Esteemed Ambassadors," she nodded to him subtly, "Professor Palin, I must apologize for taking the liberty of speaking out of turn."

Internally he simply shrugged, he was only really there as a courtesy and because it was his Institute's base. With a simple nod, he acknowledged the Matriarch's comment which she took as permission to continue.

"I am sure you all have many, many questions, just as we have many questions." There was an amused murmur at that.

"The Citadel Council extends it's warmest welcome to your race during your introduction to galactic civilization."

An eyebrow went up as Palin thought about that statement, humans were all over the galaxy already. They hadn't met anyone...friendly yet but still. They were a civilization.

He could see though, the way the Matriarch was addressing the assembled ambassadors that she hadn't noticed him as she continued.

"As is tradition, I wish to first extend our invitation to your race to come to the Citadel. The center of our galactic civilization, culture, and continued efforts to promote peace and cooperation. There we can better come to know each other and further the goals of all our races in the spirit of cooperation and coexistence."

Palin looked back at the ambassadors of the three major powers and saw some polite interest on the Imperial group, a bit of cautious but easy cheer from the Federation and most surprisingly, seemingly earnest excitement on the face of the Alliance ambassador. The moment didn't last however as they began to look between each other, their faces carefully neutral as they regarded each other.

' _Crap, and now the politicking begins because if the briefing was correct these Citadel types are going to need a ride.'_

He queried his mindcom and noticed there was a flurry of traffic between the lead ambassadors and among their teams on their mindcoms. Then, Daniel Calf spoke up.

"Matriarch, the Empire is not opposed to such an arrangement and would be honored to provide escort to your 'Citadel'."

Palin saw the team from the Federation's faces tighten before their lead ambassador began to speak loudly to cut off the Imperial ambassador.

' _This is going to be a long day.'_

* * *

Marcus rattled off the translation of what was said as they arrived on the bridge, the only interruptions so far had been when Spectre Odoln had bounced off the floor and that had been a muffled chuckle. He did admit to himself that it was funny to see it again although his circumstances kept him from too much amusement.

"And then I said, 'Look, if we keep getting sidetracked-" He stopped when Taylor held up his hand. Marcus felt his teeth click together and a little part of his pride balked at the way he was letting himself be commanded. The larger part of him that just wanted away from all of this just waited for the man across from him to speak. He really wanted his ships back.

"You know, one thing that I don't think anyone's thought too much on that just popped in my head. How in the hell did you learn to speak this blue alien's language?"

Marcus' shoulders dropped a bit at that as he looked back at the datapad for a second. Still looking at the paused video his voice wasn't particularly loud but the room was small.

"The same way they speak our language now, their 'Meld'."

"Meld? They do some sort of connection of nervous systems right? That's what Palin forwarded."

He paused a moment, "So when did that happen with you? The briefing I got wasn't really specific but it mentioned it happened on that damaged ship right?"

Marcus looked up as he remembered and a flash of panic surged through him.

"Yeah, I boarded that ship, found a bunch of...bodies first. Heads were gone, apparently they were explosive collars - slavers hit the ship."

He just got a grunt and Taylor made the 'go-on' motion with his hand.

"The asari I found was almost dead and desperate. I had tripped on my way to the room she was in and there was grease and sweat blocking my view where my face hit the visor. Didn't think about it, just popped my helmet."

He paused as he grimaced, the flashes of everything happening again made a very unwelcome appearance in his mind. He leaned forward and put his head in his hands and fell silent for a moment. Interrupted by Taylor clearing his throat. He continued.

"I looked up and her eyes were black before she, well, melded. Didn't realized I was an alien, just that I didn't understand her language. So she...eh."

He sat back up, sliding down in the chair a bit in a slouch, "Stabbed it into my mind. Felt like I broke apart and the pieces of my mind soaked it all up like mental acid."

"What do you mean, mental acid?"

"It's like exactly that, having someone else shove themselves into your mind, you just sort of...shatter, then every piece is you and them."

"I can't say I have any idea what the hell you're talking about Marcus."

"Yes."

Taylor's thought for a second, like he was trying to see if Marcus was messing with him but he just held Taylor's gaze before the man motioned for him to continue.

He felt his eyes go unfocused as he remembered what happened next, his brow bunched up as the situation played out in his mind with a vividness he hadn't remembered anything else with before.

"I felt and remembered what happened to her, the Elcor captain, the others on the freighter, the pirates, her daughter. That was the...most urgent thing and last thing. It was burned into my mind."

His eyes were wide now, dimly he was aware of a feeling of wetness on his cheeks, "Then she died, I...felt my heart stop. The feeling of all of my blood draining into my legs, arms going weak...not cold but just numb"

BAM!

Marcus jumped, his eyes darting around at the sudden sound as he tried to sit up, feeling his limbs twitch like they had just after the asari died before he forced his vision to focus again. Taylor was across from him, his hand in a slight dent he had made apparently slamming his hand on the table to break him out of his memory.

He could only stare at the man, finally realizing that he saw some flicker of genuine concern in the otherwise stoic countenance.

There was silence for a moment before Taylor sat back and let his hand slide off the table.

"Tell you what Marcus, that sounded like a Type-9 full of bullshit you got shoved into your head. Next bar you go to tell em to charge your tab to your Pilot's License. You look like you could use a drink after all of that."

Marcus didn't nod or otherwise acknowledge that, he just reached for the datapad and started translating again. Anything to shove all that crap back in it's little hole in his mind.

* * *

Benezia watched, keeping her composure and answering the questions the three groups of ambassadors directed at her while they discussed among themselves.

' _No, not discussed, they seem polite but I've seen these sort of arguments before. They don't want to let anyone else know they're arguing but there's history between these groups. They seem to dislike each other.'_

Her eyes were drawn to the exotic Alliance ambassador, the dark red hair bouncing as she shook her head at the suggestion that had answered the question she had asked. It seemed that they all had the means to travel to Citadel space with the navigation data that Commander Marcus had collected but the internal politics between all of them were a major stopping point in moving forward with any actual plan to do so.

The Federation ambassador made the same argument he had been making, that since the Federation could trace back to their home world, they would be the ones to take them. The Empire and Alliance disagreed for their own reasons. The Empire stated that as their first interstellar successful colony, humanity should be represented by them. The Alliance's statement was a bit more nebulous. They didn't seem to have any specific claim to make to support their transporting them to the Citadel beyond it shouldn't be the two oldest governments that did so.

It hadn't even really been that long since she had put it forward that they should come to the Citadel and while she could admire the...energy the three groups put into the prospect, she didn't relish being caught in internal politics of another race.

With a strong, clear voice she cut the arguments off, "Ambassadors, if I may make a suggestion?"

They all went quiet and seemed to compose themselves at that, the usual reaction she was used to when speaking.

"Commander Rein had done an excellent job of bringing us this far. Perhaps he would be willing to provide the transport for all parties to our Citadel?"

The Alliance ambassador, Holly Bastogne if she remembered correctly, spoke at that, "The Pilot's Federation is unaffiliated and we all have long-standing agreements with them."

She paused, "We cannot be sure Commander Rein would be willing to make the trip again though. I understand he was rather looking forward to washing his hands of all this, so to speak."

The Empire ambassador followed the line of thought, "I have no doubt we could secure an appropriate Commander for this however. I know of several off hand who have Imperial Cutters available for something like this."

Holly scoffed subtly at that, "I believe an Orca or Beluga would be better suited-"

Benezia sensed another three-way argument as she noticed the Federation ambassador subtly shift on his feet.

"Perhaps I could speak with Commander Rein, if nothing else I do wish to thank him and wish him well."

The three lead ambassadors exchanged glances, Denton Fields leaned over to speak privately with one of his assistance for a moment before looking back to her.

"While we wait to reach him, might I suggest a short recess? It has been a very exciting few hours."

Benezia bowed, "Of course." She then looked to Professor Palin and he motioned them towards the door, the others waiting until she had left.

* * *

AHAHAHAHA! HA-ha...ah...

Marcus and Taylor laughed at the faces on the screen, the nearly manic grin on his face flanked by the obvious looks of panic on the alien faces.

"Ah...damn Marcus, I've not laughed like that in a while!" He made air quotes with his fingers, "Trust me, I'm a Pilot!"

Taking a deep breath, they both composed themselves, Marcus chuckled to himself as he remembered the sounds the four Citadel reps had made on the first hyperspace jump.

"If nothing else good comes of this fiasco Marcus, that might have just made this whole headache worth it."

Marcus nodded, agreeing as he started the video again. The look on Benezia's face morphing from one of panic, slowly to one of wonder over a few seconds. The other three along for the ride had various reactions as well.

"Now, Benezia seems to be enjoying the jump." Taylor's comment was punctuated by Benezia's light laugh, almost a giggle. None of the lights that both men knew they were seeing showed on the video so it looked like they were all staring very hard at nothing.

"You tell them that there's no proof of what they saw?"

Marcus nodded but didn't say anything until the end of the jump came, both of them chuckling at the renewed look of panic as the bridge of the ship was bathed in light at their arrival from hyperspace. After a moment the lighting on the bridge changed and he started to translate as the video showed them all face in towards each other but was interrupted by a grunt from Taylor as he held up a finger for him to stop.

Pausing the video, "What's up?"

"It seems there's been a request for you, I'd thought there'd be more time of everyone making each other's acquaintance but sounds like Matriarch T'Soni wants to move things onto their home turf."

Marcus just looked at him, a bit confused as he heard a knock on the door, Taylor getting up and the door opening. Professor Palin walked in, nodding to Taylor who nodded back.

Marcus stood, "Professor-" He stopped as Benezia and the others followed in behind him.

Professor Palin spoke next, "Commander Rein, Benezia has invited the ambassadors to their Citadel."

"Ah, so soon?" Palin just nodded and shot him a look which Marcus just returned a confused glance.

Benezia cut any other comments off however, "Commander Rein, I realize that perhaps you have been looking forward to no longer being involved with our first contact now that more..."

Marcus smirked, "Qualified people are here?"

She returned the smirk, "Yes, however, just as the freighter or my ship in the Terminus systems was a poor location for a first contact, and no offense to the Professor here, but the Citadel is the best location for such an auspicious event as a first contact."

Marcus glanced at Taylor, already connecting the dots but still nervous to access his mindcom again, "So you're here to say goodbye?"

"Actually, the Pilot's Federation has been agreed upon to bring the four ambassadorial parties to the Citadel." Marcus made note of the slight inflection she had put on 'agreed'.

"Ah, makes sense, not part of any government…."

A nod from her confirmed that was the jist of it, "I did want to ask you personally if you would be willing to make the trip again? I understand if you no longer want to be entangled in this but, "

She paused for a moment, "We found your company pleasant during the trip here all things considered."

The other three nodded which got a questioning look from Palin.

Spectre Odoln spoke up, "We understand if you have other obligations but we would prefer to travel with you having already done so. You've been a good host Commander Rein."

Taylor looked a little surprised at the Salarian speaking English but got a thoughtful look on his face for a moment when Marcus looked at him, the question obvious.

Marcus thought about it for a moment, "Well, I was translating these logs." He motioned at the datapad on the table when a notification popped up in his mindcom.

-Connection established - MRS Lucy-

Marcus grinned as he saw that and noticed Taylor standing up, grabbing the tablet.

"Well Commander, I think we have enough to translate the rest." He nodded to the various people in the room before catching Marcus' eye for a brief moment.

"I'll leave this up to you...Commander." He broke eye contact and the left, leaving Marcus feeling rather light...and relieved.

"Well Benezia, I think I'm feeling up for another few thousand light year trip." Marcus couldn't keep the grin off his face at the chance to get back out there.

"Now, where is this Citadel we'll be going to anyway?" Benezia thought for a second before turning to Odoln.

The Spectre brought up his Omni-tool and a small projection of the galaxy formed, "We made contact here." a small circle highlighted a spot on the galaxy although given the size and scale it would be more appropriate to say it highlighted a few thousand stars considering the projection of the galaxy was only about a meter across.

Unperturbed by the lack of precision, he keyed in a command and a line jumped out from the circle, bouncing off two others on the other side of the galactic center and ending at a spot almost on the other side of the galactic bulge.

"These are the relay jumps to the Serpent Nebula."

They all looked at it for a moment before Marcus spoke up, "Sooo…" He looked up at Odoln, "Where are we compared to all of this?"

The Spectre just smiled, "No idea. Should be a fun problem."

Marcus just laughed at that before responding, "First things first then, a bit of cartography huh?"

He turned to Palin, "Professor, do you have a room with a galaxy map? I think we'll have to spend some time figuring this out."

After a moment of thought, Palin nodded, "Sure, I'm curious as to where we are compared to Citadel space anyway."

* * *

Daniel watched the group of aliens leave the room, his smile fading into a thoughtful look as he ran through what had just happened before his thoughts were interrupted by the other Ambassador.

"I don't like them."

Raising his eyebrows, he looked over to his Alliance counterpart, interested, "Oh? I had thought that with the Alliance's view on alien life you'd be the first ones to welcome them."

Holly Bastogne huffed before shaking her head, "Oh we were at first. The briefing I read through didn't mention they'd, or rather that 'Matriarch' would be so...vaguely condescending."

Denton spoke up at that moment, turning away from his aides as they went about whatever task he had set them to.

"You could be imagining it, we know little of their species. Besides, the Alliance is always complaining about being condescended to. That you'd think that with aliens…" He left any other insinuation left unsaid.

"This was supposed to be a diplomatic meeting between four sovereign governments. We should still be introducing ourselves, answering questions, asking them! Instead, they derail the entire process, insisting that we go to their Citadel. Do neither of you feel like Matriarch T'Soni wasn't so much as listening as she was just waiting to drop that on us?"

Daniel shook his head, "Ms Bastogne, they're aliens. You can't expect the same considerations given to us that we would give them. That one of their experienced diplomats came here on a Pilot's ship-"

"If you believe what was said in that report and if it holds the same weight in their society as ours, if the Matriarch and her companions are the best that could be sent, IF, IF, IF"

He simply stared at the red-haired diplomat as she finished her little outburst, waiting a moment to ensure she was done.

"Yes, there are unknowns when faced with first contact with _multiple alien species_. A lot of 'ifs' as you say. That alone shouldn't be enough to get you so….concerned."

She glared at him for a moment before speaking, her voice controlled, "I don't like them because Matriarch T'Soni was speaking to _all_ of us the same way both of your governments speak to mine."

Daniel thought on that for a moment before she continued, "Now they're taking it as a given that we would jump through their hoops to meet at a place of their choosing. Something that I am still surprised both of you agreed to so readily, argued over who would take them no less!"

Denton answered her, his voice getting her attention and her hair bouncing as she snapped to look at him.

"The reason for that is simple, we can reach them but they can't reach us." Daniel could feel the tension between the two as Denton almost looked down his nose at the Alliance ambassador.

"So they say."

"Hmph, either way, we've nominally agreed to do exactly that. I assume the Alliance will be accompanying the representatives of the bulk of humanity to their Citadel?"

Daniel watched as she stiffened slightly before shaking her head and relaxing her posture, apparently deciding to not take the bait, "Yes, as much as the Alliance would simply prefer being left out of entanglement with another government who thinks they know better, this is too big."

She glared at Denton, "My team and I will be there to represent the minority of humanity, the trillion not under one of your two government's heels."

Daniel made a hmph sound, which got her attention, "Charming. Though its less than a trillion if I remember correctly" giving her a flat look which she returned.

"However, for all the Alliance's misgivings and usually misplaced complaints I do find myself agreeing with you this time Ms Bastogne."

This elicited a small expression of surprise on her face, "I am not oblivious to how this meeting went but there is still much to learn and until which time we get the measure of this new government I will withhold any condemnation or praise."

"Interested in learning if there are another group of slavers out there? The report did mention that Commander Rein seemed to have interrupted a slave raid." Daniel felt a flash of anger, looking pointedly at Denton.

"And what would the Federation do if there were, I wonder?"

Denton sneered, "Same thing as we've always done with slavers if they enter our territory."

Daniel felt his jaw tighten, he spoke through clenched teeth, "Imperial Slaves are not rounded up in raids! They do not have explosive collars and are treated according to our laws. The Emperor has made the Empire's stance on unauthorized slavery _very_ clear and we have the same if not more strict punishment for unauthorized slaves-"

"They're all unauthorized, you can't condone slavery!"

As he turned and walked around the table to the Federation group to express his displeasure he heard Ms Bastogne sigh and internally he sympathized, this was an old argument after all.

* * *

Benezia sat next to Marcus, both drinking the tea that Palin had provided as they watched him, Spectre Odoln, and Uolon working at the large galaxy map projected in the room. Velictus sat on the other side of Benezia with a glass of water, still not wanting to test any food or drink until it could be tested for any allergic reactions a Turian might have.

She felt the cushion shift as Marcus leaned a bit closer to her to mock whisper to her, "I think they're just throwing out acronyms and jargon to impress each other."

She smiled a bit at that, it did seem the three of them were trying to do so. They had been working on a galaxy map roughly large enough you could land a shuttle on it trying to plot some basic points their maps could match up with. Slow going and not much progress in the hour they'd been at it. The only two points on it that were marked with any certainty was the system Marcus had met them in and the one they were currently in.

Spectre Odoln spoke a bit louder, having heard them even though his back was mostly turned to the three of them.

"Pinpointing stellar phenomena that both our civilizations are aware of is the best method we will have to syncing up our cartography." He typed on a datapad and some points were highlighted on the galaxy map in blue and then a similar but different set of points were highlighted in green.

Odoln just sighed, "However, it does seem we will need the Council's more accurate maps. I do not have enough data to line this up properly with us. We rarely have reason to do this without a relay as a point of reference."

With that Palin just nodded and shut the map down, all three of them giving off a sense of slight frustration at not being able to solve that problem as they walked over and sat down with them.

Marcus spoke up as they were sitting, "Well, at least we can get back to your space. I've still got the navigation data."

"Now that you've mentioned that Marcus, is your ship configured to transport everyone? I assume our governments will want their teams to accompany us to the Citadel."

Marcus blinked a few times at her, a surprised look on his face that quickly morphed into a small grimace. No, it would seem he hadn't thought of that yet. She hid her smile behind her cup as she sipped.

"Yeah-no, I did not." He looked to Palin, "Can I do a ship transfer or module transfer?"

Palin nodded and Marcus grinned at that, "Great! Then I have the ship I want to use, it's in Allen station but shouldn't take long to transfer. Lucy's a good ship but Brick? She's a good ship and she's _pretty._ "

He blinked at nothing for a moment, looking at the air between them all before a hologram of a ship popped up between them.

"She's an Orca model and I can get her fitted out for luxury and travel."

Palin coughed, "You named an Orca, one of three luxury ship classes...Brick?"

Marcus seemed proud, "Yep!"

Benezia looked at the spinning image of the ship Marcus seemed so excited about, there would be no mistaking it for anything other race's ship she knew of but it did seem...sleek. She still preferred the lines of Asari ships though.

The conversation was interrupted and she set her tea cup down as she heard a knock at the door, no doubt an aide letting them know they should convene again.

For all the thrown together feel this entire trip had, she was still enjoying herself and she was very much looking forward to bringing humanity into the Council.

* * *

 **Alright! Another chapter down, it came in fits and starts but I got it. I've got part of the next chapter typed up so I'll have the next one out before the end of next month...probably. This has mainly focused on Marcus and first contact and will keep in the same vein as that. He's caught up in all this for now. I do want to thank those that have enjoyed it so far and reviewed. I'm glad I can put something up that's different than a different Shanxi. Funnily enough, I started this story with an ending so no worries on this story not getting finished.**

 **I would like to hear what you all have to say about the story. Review if you can, even guest reviews. I'm not so much worried about the numbers on the story but if everyone is enjoying it.**

 **Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Welcome back! Didn't get the chapter out when I wanted but in my defense, holidays, Fallout 76, and the new update of Elite kept me busy. Mostly the holidays though, why do they seem like more of a chore the older you get? Now Fallout 76, the less said the better. The new update to Elite? Loving the scanning and mining. Making bank cracking asteroids and I actually feel like I'm mining in space. FDev is stepping it up a bit.**

 **Now, without further ado? adoo? stalling, the chapter!**

* * *

 **Palin Institute, Maia system - Large Hangar**

Marcus walked into the room like he owned it, one of Palin's assistants following shortly behind him. He glanced around at the various consoles before his gaze settled on the view outside the only window. Facing the large landing pad, he could see Lucy in all he glory.

"I see you touched up the paint job, all the little repairs done?" He looked over at the assistant for a moment, seeing him nod.

The assistant motioned to the chair in front of one of the consoles, "You can schedule your ship to be transferred there. Also, I've added a few modules and additions to an Orca class ship to help with the trip."

Marcus just nodded and grunted a bit at the assistant as he navigated through the menus, ordering his Orca-class ship, 'Brick' to be transported to Palin's base. When he noticed the transfer fee was 0 Cr he smirked.

' _Looks like they'll foot the bill for all this.'_

With that out of the way, he opened the list of his stored modules to pick the ones that he would need when his eyes stopped on one.

"I'm guessing this...Guardian FSD Booster? Is one of those modules? Where in the hell did Palin get anything Guardian?"

The assistant squinted at the list, noticing the module before glancing at something on his own mindcom, looking off into empty space for a few seconds.

"After some study, some researchers found a way to use what was found at some Guardian sites to rig up that module. Boosts an extra 10.3 light years a jump on any ship it's fitted on."

"Really? A little over 10 extra light years…..cool." The assistant just nodded and Marcus turned around to finish transferring modules.

He was interrupted after his third time looking over the list, having selected a few of his more highly engineered modules for 'Brick'

"If you're looking for the advanced scanner, they're not in use anymore. The one on your ship has actually been unfitted and recycled already. There's still the discovery scanner but it just picks up the stars in a system."

"Well what the hell-"

"If you want to scan the planets, there's this." With a thought, the assistant opened the file on the console in front of Marcus, cutting off his complaints as a video started to play.

"What the...Full Spectrum System Scanner...oh, that looks interesting…" He quickly forgot the assistant and started going through the options. In the back of his mind he didn't expect to do any major scanning but since he had to wait for his ship and modules to arrive anyway, he was engrossed.

The assistant noticed this and sent a file to Marcus' mindcom, half-muttering as he left, "Here are the orders for the trip from the diplomats. No neutron jumps, keep things smooth, et cetera, et cetera..."

He stepped out with that, not seeing Marcus' half turn and absent-minded nod.

* * *

 **Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Luxury Cabin**

Benezia listened politely to Daniel Calf as he described his schooling and the schooling system of his Empire after Denton Fields had mentioned off handedly the same in the Federation. While interesting hearing how they educated and the differences it had compared to the Federation's she found herself having a bit of difficulty giving the three human diplomats her full attention. That they had all agreed to keep the topic of discussion to harmless subjects, day to day happenings for their peoples and other such public information. Not particularly taxing for a professional diplomat.

Every time she saw the discrete notice of another FSD jump, followed by the minuscule shudder of the ship finishing the jump she felt a twinge of...something. She wouldn't admit to herself that she was annoyed but there was a small part of her that would have much rather been on the bridge as they did these jumps, watching the strangeness of hyperspace and the sudden blossoming of the star in front of them.

She mentally admonished herself and brought her attention back to the humans, she was there to foster relations during first contact with this race. Not stare out the window.

The ship shuddered slightly and she went on to describe the Asari universities on Thessia.

* * *

 **Council Chambers**

The three of them looked at each other one last time to make sure they were all on board. Hours ago, they had come to the conclusion that the contact with Humanity would be announced. Even before they had a definite answer on whether Matriarch T'Soni would return in the time frame they had laid out.

Preparations had been made, speeches wrote, and information carefully screened and worded that was now published to an Extranet site that would be made public momentarily.

With no reservations from the three of them, they all rose and signaled they were ready. They moved out to the Council chambers and took their places. The film crews took their places and made a few last minute adjustments.

Tevos looked over to the other two Councilors, nodding to each of them before straightening and nodding to the camera operator.

After a short countdown, the lights came on and the three Councilors were addressing the galaxy.

She began, "Hello and thank you for joining us, " a bit of a lie as she knew that the Council broadcast would show up as an emergency prompt that everyone had to open to dismiss the notification.

"We have historic news for everyone in the galaxy. Just a short time ago, the Citadel Council has made contact with a new race in the Galaxy. In a system on the border of the terminus systems, a ship commanded by a member of the new race was contacted."

She paused there and smiled, building up the weight of the moment as Sparatus continued, "The new race is called Humanity, one of their explorers made contact a few days ago. At which time, we sent our most experienced diplomat, Matriarch T'Soni, to the system."

Tevos took over again, "First contact with Humanity was made by one of their explorers and as such, Matriarch T'Soni, accompanied by two of her crew as well as a Spectre, have agreed to travel to Human space to meet with and invite their leaders to the Citadel. They are expected to arrive in approximately four days."

Councilor Bursik waited a moment after Tevos had spoken, "Invitations for prominent members of all species have been sent and we have put up an Extranet site with the registration for the event here on the Citadel of their arrival."

"All access to the Presidium and Council chambers will require registration through that site. We have also included all information about this new species there and a forum is open for the discussion. We hope to make it open to the Humans after they arrive to showcase our excitement during this momentous event."

After a moment he added, "Please conduct yourselves accordingly."

Tevos smiled in her best politician's way, "We all look forward to meeting this new race and hope you join us here on over the Extranet. Thank you."

All across Citadel space, Extranet traffic spiked as calls were made, meetings rescheduled or cancelled, tickets booked, and a server cluster On Sur'Kesh began drawing prodigious amounts of power to accommodate the hardware needed for the billions of connection requests.

* * *

 **Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Terminus System**

With a final shudder, the star came into view. The very average yellow-orange color of the star made Marcus laugh to himself. This system was anything but average for him anymore. He smiled to himself as he ran the discovery scanner, noting that there were no new astrological items found.

The fuel scooping only took a moment and he angled away and out of the proximity of the star. He opened the navigation panel and noted there were only three of the in-system signals that he'd scanned, the rest were coming up as unknown.

Throttling down, he opened the channel with the luxury cabin, "This is your Commander speaking, we have arrived at our destination system. According to our itinerary, we will rendezvous with the Asari ship 'Soft Wind' and proceed to the Citadel in the….Serpent Nebula via the Mass Effect Relay system. Thank you for flying Brick space liners, literally the only human space liner to bring you here in _style_."

Marcus took his finger off the cabin intercom and looked over at his co-pilot with a smile. Which was not returned as they were paging through menus either doing actual work or just to ignore his antics.

With a shake of his head, Marcus looked at the message that had returned from the cabin, in text only.

"Thank you for the riveting announcement. I've been asked to relay that you should proceed to the orbit of the second rocky planet in the system where the 'Soft Wind' is waiting. We will all be up shortly. The communications frequency has been uploaded to the computer."

' _No sense of humor with these people.'_

Selecting the planet from the system map, he changed direction. As he approached the planet within 15 light-seconds and he throttled down to 75% speed, the door to the bridge opened and the diplomats filed in. Keeping the navigation window open, Marcus kept his attention on flying the ship as he heard the background noise of the diplomats speaking among each other. He did make note to himself that Benezia had moved to the chair next to his quietly, seeming to just enjoy the view.

As he made it to the other side of the planet, a signal popped up. He selected that and adjusted speed. Everyone on the bridge quieted down then, watching the distance readout dwindle until the destination lock came up.

With a practiced motion, Marcus dropped out of supercruise a mere eight kilometers from the 'Soft Wind'. He dropped to 0m/s and turned his chair to face everyone.

"We're here everyone, now the real work begins!" That comment seemed to break the tension in the air as the human diplomats chuckled, joined by Benezia.

Benezia smiled for a moment before her Omni-tool chimed and she opened it with a subdued beep.

Suddenly Thessian came over the channel, " _This is the Asari ship 'Soft Wind' to the approaching vessel. Hailing the approaching vessel."_

Marcus listened as he looked at the faces of the human diplomats, polite confusion on their faces as Benezia answered.

"' _Soft Wind', this is Matrarch T'Soni, I have returned with the Human Ambassadors."_

Marcus took it upon himself to translate quietly for the sake of everyone that didn't know the alien language and everyone smiled as they heard the cheering over the channel at Benezia's statement.

As Benezia spoke to her ship, Marcus continued to translate. " _It is good to be back T'Vani. Please send a notice to the Council of my success and inform them that we will be arriving by Relay soon. Keep them updated."_

The Asari ship acknowledged them and with that first bit of business done, Benezia spoke to them all.

"Ambassadors, Commander, now I invite you to experience the traditional interstellar our races use. The relay is between this second planet in the system and the third. I am unsure if it will register on your sensors. If it does not, I will have the Soft Wind send over a heading and distance for you to find it."

Marcus opened the Navigation page and saw the next signal closest to them listed as unknown.

"If you give me a minute, I'll scan around and see if the signal I think it is is it."

The Federation and Imperial ambassadors shifted a bit at that, Daniel Calf speaking up, "Perhaps we can go down to the cabin again, this scanning can take a little while given that it is a new-"

He was interrupted by the space suddenly seeming to shift and the scanning interface filling their vision. They all watched, a few of the humans annoyed at the casual display of their technology, as Marcus adjusted the scanning, highlighting the planet they were currently near. After a few moments it's composition filled in and the scan completed.

They all noted that the scanner listed seven Human(?) sites and two Geological on the planet. Spectre Odoln made special note of this given the status of this system as being on the Terminus side of the relay and this planet being closest to the relay. He decided he or one of his colleagues would be visiting that planet soon.

Zooming out, Marcus selected the next signal. The view shifted again and it zoomed in on a pixelated silver-blue oval.

Benezia spoke up, "That does appear to be the position of the Relay, Marcus." He just nodded as the image slowly resolved.

They all watched, the humans in anticipation of what these alien transportation devices actually looked like, the aliens watched as the human technology resolved the image of the Relay.

After nearly twenty seconds the image finally finished and the data about the Relay was listed next to the image. They all watched as the composition attempted to fill out, a few elements showing up for a moment before changing. The readings continued to fluctuate as they all watched. Only the size - 15Km on the longest axis stayed the same. The mass, composition, and short description kept changing before stopping, displaying an error.

Marcus frowned a second at that, "Well, looks like whatever those things are built of don't play well with our sensors."

Everyone sat for a moment, looking at the information in front of them before Marcus clapped his hands suddenly and the FSS display dissolved again.

"Well, nothing for it, I'll take us to the relay now. Benezia, er, Matriarch T'Soni, can you inform the Soft Wind that I can proceed. I assume they'll accompany us?"

She nodded as she sat further into the seat, "Yes. I've also been told there will be a Turian patrol following at a distance as a measure of security until we make it to the last Relay into the Serpent Nebula. For each jump you'll need to be within twenty kilometers of the relay and transmit your unaltered mass."

"How do I transmit to the Relay?"

"They will pick up nearly any organized transmission, the first time transmitting the actual mass though, you will need to establish a baseline number system. Transmitting PI simple mathematics should work."

Marcus just looked back at the others on the bridge as they spoke to each other quickly. They all seemed to decide and they nodded to him. He looked over to the Federation aide that had been running the scanner, "Can you setup the numbers thing for me to send to the Relay?" He nodded to Marcus.

Turning his chair forward again, "If that's the case then, everyone hold on for a moment while I accelerate back to supercruise and we all get going."

He selected the Relay signal on the navigation panel. Benezia was still seated next to him and the others had moved to the back wall and were holding on. By some agreement they had, they seemed to have decided to be on the bridge while they approached and made the Relay jump.

He throttled up slowly and engaged the FSD. He was careful asAs the noise built as it charged there was a flash as they noticed the Soft Wind go FTL as well, disappearing from the local sensors. The drive charged and the short countdown ended with a bang and a sharp shudder in the ship as it entered supercruise. The sound of the ship wound up as the distance and the time to the relay dropped.

Marcus fidgeted a bit as he felt all of the eyes on him and the readouts. Keeping a nervous eye on the destination, making a lot of small adjustments as he noticed the destination lock distance at 8.5Mm.

As they approached closer and closer, the destination lock was made and Marcus dropped them out and Benezia and the others smiled as she heard the gasps and appreciative muttering as the humans all laid eyes on a Mass Effect Relay for the first time. Marcus quickly dropped the speed to zero. Having dropped out at just over eight kilometers away, the Relay filled their view. The bright and active eezo shimmering with waves of power, surrounded by the gyroscopic core brought on a stretch of silence on the bridge.

Velictus broke the spell, he chirped something quietly to Uolon next to him who spoke for him, "We usually come out farther from the Relays on an approach vector. Rarely do we get a chance to admire them from this close."

Holly Bastogne was the next to speak, "They're beautiful. I can't imagine the power it must take to keep them running."

Benezia cut in, not wanting to get into a conversation about the Relays yet, "Marcus, you can transmit your initial number sequence now. Odoln, do you have the information on what they should receive?"

With a nod, he moved next to Marcus as he brought something up on his Omni-tool, "You'll receive a confirmation once the Relay has your numbering system down, it will just be a count from zero to ten million. After you receive that, you'll need to transmit your mass in kilograms."

Marcus just nodded and sent the signal, after a minute or two he got the confirmation.

Looking over the bridge at everyone, "Alright everyone, ready to make history as the first humans to use a fourth method of FTL?"

They all smiled and voiced their encouragement. With a deep breath Marcus sent his ship's mass and held his breath. Tension built for a moment as nothing happened before a blue line of energy shot out to engulf the ship. Benezia and the others smirked when all but Marcus let out a short surprised sound.

An odd sensation like static electricity built on their skin and suddenly there was an intense sensation of being flung an extraordinary distance. The view had changed from the Relay to a rapidly shifting blue tunnel for a brief moment that was very quickly replaced with a star field slamming into place.

They drifted for a moment, the Relay off to the right of the ship, the ship facing nearly parallel with the direction the arms on the Relay were pointing.

Marcus laughed suddenly and sat back, slapped the arm of his chair, "That was awesome! How far was that?"

Benezia laughed to herself, amused, "That was the longest Relay jump, 12,700 light years as that was a primary Relay. The other two jumps we will take are under four thousand light years each."

Marcus was impressed, "Not bad, not bad at all. The next Relay in this system?"

Whatever Benezia was going to answer was cut off with a sharp expletive as Marcus opened the navigation panel.

With a quick apology, Marcus looked around the bridge to see everyone taking notice of what Marcus cursed at.

The navigation panel had no systems adjacent to them. Only one signal for the Relay they were next to and "SEARCHING….." blinking under that with a loading symbol rotating in the center of the page.

Marcus ran the discovery scanner, the deep thrumming sound echoing out of the ship for a moment and the list changed, a page of unknown signals popped in. The page flickered between the list of unknowns and "SEARCHING…"

Marcus got an error when trying the system map and then selected the galaxy map. Everyone watched, Marcus' chair turned in while the loading symbol spun in air. Marcus frowned as it seemed to spin, stop, spin, stop. Suddenly it exploded out and the galaxy map dominated the view.

It was obvious there was something wrong, the view centered on the system they had been in before abruptly changing, showing the whole galaxy and then changing to the last system they were in for a moment before it all disappeared again, the loading symbol spun for a moment. Finally the map came back, zoomed out to show the entire galaxy.

Marcus stared at the map as if it personally offended him, the words "Location Unknown - Re-calibrate" hanging over the map.

With a deep sigh, Marcus shook his head, "I think everyone should get back to your cabin for now. I've got to see what I've got to do to "re-calibrate" my navigation computer."

The Imperial ambassador spoke up at that, "Can't we just go back to the previous system?"

"We could but that doesn't get us any closer to where we're going. As the Commander of this ship, let's get everyone back to the cabin and I'll work this out."

The ambassador stared at him for a moment before looking at the other two human ambassadors and then to Benezia, "Matriarch T'Soni, we'd best leave him to it then. All else fails I'm sure we can work out alternate transport to your Citadel."

Benezia seemed to accept that, "We've trusted human technology this far Ambassador, as you say, I'm sure we can work something out."

With a last glance to Marcus, she, Uolon and Velictus followed the Imperial ambassador out, followed by the Alliance and Federation ambassadors.

Spectre Odoln moved up next to Marcus, "I may be able to assist, I've pulled up the list of pulsars in relation to this system. That is the method used to find the location when Salarian exploration teams need to do so."

Marcus thought for a moment, "That might help but I've got to see if there's anything in the manual about this."

Odoln became confused when Marcus reached into a compartment under the console in front of his seat and pulled a large book out.

"A...printed book?" Marcus opened it, glancing up at Odoln for a moment and nodding before leafing through.

"Yep, standard practice on all Pilot's Federation ships. If you lose power somewhere and can't access a computer system, you've still got something."

"Seems archaic."

"That too but I've not ever even heard of an error with the navigation systems like I'm having now. Since there's an error and not just a generic error code, that leads me to believe there's something about this in this." he tapped on the back of the book, a dull thud could be heard, "might have something on 'recalibrating' the nav system."

After a moment, Marcus looked up at the Federation aide that was still sitting at his station, waiting quietly.

"Or if you have something to add to this?" The aide just shook his head

"Nope, if I was on a Farragut I'd be able to help but then again, we'd not be in this situation on one of those."

Marcus just made a hmph sound and went back to looking for anything that would help them get to where they were going.

* * *

 **Palin Institute, Maia System - Private Hangar**

The hangar bay was cleared of all personnel, a single small ship sat in the center, the focus of a myriad of sensors. The shuttle that Commander Rein had quietly transferred to him had been prepared for testing and now his assistant, Daniel, sat behind the controls of the small ship. Having gotten the Asari language from the Matriarch that had accompanied Rein, they found that his assistant could now read the same language as well.

With the controls deciphered, he now had one of his more trusted staff getting ready to activate the shuttle and begin the testing to figure out the new tech.

Palin leaned forward behind the observation window, his eyes the only thing betraying how eager he was to see the shuttle in action.

"Begin the power up sequence. Once we have readings on the power system we will test the 'barriers'."

He looked down at the readouts for the instruments. Most of them didn't read anything, those were the ones not connected to the ship. He hadn't expected to see anything on those when they were just powering the ship on. The sensors attached to what they had decided was the power plant were showing readings. Lower powered than he would have expected for a ship that was supposed to be capable of interstellar travel but it was alien technology.

"I'm getting readings, hold for a minute…"

"Next step, activate the barrier system." This one had him watching very closely. Different shielding technology, even if it didn't seem to stop laser weaponry and only kinetic rounds, would be _very_ interesting.

They all watched as a thin veil of blue light coalesced in a dome shape around the shuttle with a muffled pop and then faded from view.

"Barrier is up and reading at 100%. Ready for kinetic testing." Palin keyed in the control and a single high-powered round from a class 3 multi-cannon was fired at the barrier.

The loud bang of the gun was immediately complimented by a sharp pop, whizzing sound and a flash of blue light as the round was deflected and ricochet up, slamming into the ceiling with a metallic bang.

"Barriers show a twelve percent drop in power and are charging slowly." Palin just nodded as he went to the recordings, replaying the round hitting the barrier in progressively slower motion.

Muttering to himself, "Twelve percent for a single round, not as good as a Class 2 shield but for a fraction of the power…."

His mind started racing as he contemplated the possibilities that would open if they could secure a supply of this "element zero".

Clearing his throat and moving back to the main console, "Proceed with the next test."

He was looking forward to finding everything he could about the shuttle.

* * *

 **Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Terminus System**

"Holy crap! Found it, finally!" Marcus slapped the page he had the manual open to. The method for re-calibrating the navigation position had been in the middle of a section of the manual dedicated to outdated, legacy systems. It just hadn't occurred to the authors that any one would need to re-calibrate the nav system after the type-3 FSD's were introduced decades ago.

Odoln looked up from his Omni-tool, having been updating his contacts and the Council on the trip so far. Giving Marcus his attention as he began to explain.

"I've got to do a reboot of all the systems, if that doesn't work I'll have to manually target the nearest star, jump and scan it, then jump back to this system."

He turned to the next page, "Then just keep doing that until the nav system can pinpoint where we are. Huh."

Putting the manual back, sat back in his seat, feeling the suit and seat tighten around him in preparation of flying.

"Get strapped in, I'll let everyone know what's going on and we'll get to jumping." Odoln sat back in his chair and Marcus keyed the cabin intercom and let them know.

He ran the system reboot, waiting as the progress bars went through the motions while he tapped his finger on the throttle. Finally everything had rebooted he shot off a discovery pulse to make sure he had all the information he needed about the star in the system he was about to leave. After that he opened the nav panel and saw a list of fourteen nearby systems, all marked with UNKNOWN STAR.

Selecting the first one, he angled the ship and keyed the FSD and pushed the throttle to 100% as the countdown started.

"And we're off."

* * *

Marcus scowled at the nav panel as he finished the FSS scan of the system he was in. Just finishing the eleventh system, the computer still stubbornly refused to pinpoint where they were. With practiced ease, he swung the ship back around and jumped back to the system the Relay had jumped them to.

Angling around the star and finishing the brief fuel scooping, he was about to throttle down and get the manual again before the computer beeped.

POSITION ESTABLISHED

"Alright, back in business!" He opened the galaxy map and was relieved to see it centered on the system he was in, the usual string of letters and numbers for a system so far outside the bubble.

Zooming out, he saw the "previous travel" grey, dashed line pointing off to a star quite a distance away. Spectre Odoln looked over the map as well, noticing the lines branching out from the current system to the eleven different systems near them.

Marcus looked between the first Relay system and their current one, "I can see the advantages to that sort of travel. I imagine you all don't have nearly as much trouble pinpointing where you are after you jump though."

"We use relational maps instead of precise galactic positioning. With the Relays being our main long-distance interstellar travel, we really only ever care where we are in reference to those."

Bringing up a map quick on his Omni-tool, Marcus could see what Odoln was talking about, a few clusters were shown as directly adjacent to each other, connected by the Relays even if the actual distance was thousands or even tens of thousands of light-years.

"Huh, don't know how to feel about that." With a shrug he turned the seat to face front again let the diplomats in the cabin know what was going on.

"Alright, so what system is next on our journey?"

"The next Relay is in a system 12.75 light-years away. I we did not go there yet." Marcus just nodded and looked over the nav panel.

"Alright, I see a system that far away. Now we can get going again although I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do those re-calibration jumps each Relay jump. Dammit."

He shook his head as he got into position for the next jump.

* * *

 **Citadel Space**

A short burst of light and there was suddenly a ship in a close orbit of the star again. It could be seen immediately circling the star for a few moments, pulling in the hydrogen from the corona of the average yellow-orange star before pulling away and heading in the direction of an artificial construct that had been orbiting that star for untold eons of time.

Before the small ship came within a hundred thousand kilometers of the construct, it veered off towards a small rocky planet further out from the star. Dropping out of the pocket of space-time it was using to hurtle itself through the not-quite-actual vacuum of space in orbit. Another ship slipped into existence a mere ten kilometers from the first, both of them orbiting the dead rocky world together as a discussion took place.

Benezia looked up from the 'table' she was sitting at, or more accurately, floating near. The lack of artificial gravity was a little odd for her. Even more so since the cabins her and the other passengers had available were tastefully opulent. The luxury offset for her by the lack of gravity, a situation that would only ever really happen on Council ships if there were major issues.

As she saw Marcus make his way into the cabin with Odoln close behind him she greeted him, "Marcus, I trust there were no more issues?"

He shook his head, "No, it takes a few jumps out and back after the Relay jumps but I've been able to get the system to find our position each time. I'm actually down here because Odoln here said we should coordinate with your ship before we go through the last relay."

"Yes, so the Council can have everything ready at the Citadel."

"Everything ready? What are we looking at once we get there?"

"Well, I've received word that the contact was announced to the public so there will be a crowd no doubt, to witness this event."

"Crowds huh? Not sure if I'm looking forward to that." Just then, the human diplomats made their way into the room.

Denton Fields spoke up as he moved past Marcus, "You won't have to worry about the crowds Commander, I thought it would be fairly obvious we'll have you stay with your ship while docked."

Marcus frowned a bit, "That would make sense but this whole thing has been kind of a scramble...and I kind of want to see this Citadel, the center of a galactic civilization."

"You're the only one registered to pilot the…'Brick' Commander, which is why we'd like you to stay on board and make sure our ride back home is still available." He turned to Benezia, "just as a precaution of course. Having you out of the ship just isn't something anyone wants to chance. No offense is intended."

"None taken, you're arriving at a strange place surrounded by alien races. We won't begrudge you your precautions."

With that settled, Benezia looked to the other ambassadors, "Now that we are almost to the Citadel, I'd like to go over what to expect, as I said, there will be crowds as first contact with a new race is always an auspicious event."

* * *

 **Citadel - Presidium Diplomatic Dock**

Screens across Citadel space flicker for a moment before an Emergency Broadcast comes on, the image "FIRST CONTACT" appears before being replaced with a very professional Asari maiden standing in front of a crowd on the Citadel.

"Welcome back to the Citadel News Network, where just moments ago, the Council announced the pending arrival of the newest race to be contacted, the Humans."

The scene changes to show the Citadel in space with the light-red backdrop of the Serpent Nebula before panning over and zooming in on the Relay thousands of kilometers distant.

"Momentarily the Human ship 'Brick', carrying not only the human diplomats - from no less than three sovereign human nations - but they are being guided by none other than Matriarch Benezia T'Soni."

There is a small flash of light on the screen and the camera zooms in even more, centering on a sleek ship. White accentuated by broad dark sections tapering down to a rounded nose. A silver strip is seen near the back of the ship that begins to glow a dull orange-red color.

"There they are now! As you can see the Humans seem to have a sense of style! Sleek curves although the colors leave something to be desired."

The camera pans out and another ship comes into view, the form of an Asari ship comes into view.

"Joining them is Matriarch T'Soni's personal ship, the 'Soft Wind'. Reports indicate that her and her crew were instrumental in the first contact efforts."

A faint glow can be seen behind the ship as it begins to move, the camera following it's progress after a moment. A small window expands in the top right of the broadcast showing the Asari in front of the crowd again.

"I've just received word that the human ship has received authorization to approach and dock. I'm so excited! As we all know, images of the race have not yet been released so we are all eagerly awaiting the first view of these newcomers!"

As the camera follows the ship, a small distortion can be seen building off the front of the ship for a moment before it suddenly seems to snap out of view with a streak of blue-white light.

"Oh! They've gone FTL for the final approach to the Citadel, understandable given the near six hundred thousand kilometer distance."

The camera pans to an area of open space flanked on both sides by two halves of the Citadel defense fleet. The Destiny Ascension can be seen on the left side, relatively higher than the other ships.

"Now we've been informed that their flight path will see them come out here. As you can all see, the Citadel defense fleet has been positioned as an honor guard to welcome them - there they are now!"

A small flash of light far off to the right and top of the frame is seen, a glow seen and the camera pans and zooms in on the ship. Small flashes of light are seen as the ship reorients itself.

"Not precisely where they should be but close! Our understanding at CNN is that this new race uses a different drive and navigation systems than we in Citadel space are familiar with. I believe that explains the lack of precision here."

The ship is seen moving directly sideways and downward towards the center of the space available.

"Now they're re-positioning for a straight shot through the honor guard to the docks and they're approaching!"

The small window with the Asari expands, switching places with the view of the spaceship. The Asari turns to look behind her over the crowd and a small dot can be seen as it approaches.

"We have visual here at the dock! Oh my, that ship is bigger than it looked from a distance…"

The ship can be clearly seen now, coming in silently, suddenly bright thrusters flare, cancelling the forward momentum of the ship. The thrusters slowly dim as the ship slows and the thrust is dialed back.

"Ah! ….I apologize, I wasn't ready for that. The Human's ships do not make use of Mass Effect fields to maneuver and as such, require the use of opposing thrust to maneuver."

The ship is clearly visible now, the positioning of the camera and Asari becomes evident, at an angle from where the front of the ship is approaching. The camera moves with the ship, a barrier comes into view that the crowd is standing behind, a line of at-attention C-Sec officers is standing facing the crowd. The large, flat area of the landing pad visible and clear for the ship.

The Asari steps into the view from the left side, looking at the ship as it moves in. As the ship comes up to the dock it comes to the Mass Effect field holding the atmosphere in. The shields of the ship become visible where the ME field intersects it, a blue-white line that passes a few meters off the hull of the ship. Once in the pressurized dock, the shields were faintly visible, just barely glowing in the air. The ship's thrusters fire in short bursts, stopping the ship a few meters above the landing pad.

"As you can see, the ship is roughly the size of an average frigate but somewhere between Asari and Salarian design philosophy. It's setting down now. The lines of the ship-ah!"

The crowd was startled as there was a loud 'WHUMP-BANG' as the shields of the ship shut down and the Citadel atmosphere rushed into the space, slamming into the hull of the ship and rebounding. The crowd that could be seen in the view all flinched back at the sound, the C-Sec guards almost all went to duck and turned suddenly to make sure nothing happened.

After a moment and nothing bad had happened, the Asari straightened up, running a hand over her head before continuing.

"It would seem that their shielding disengaging caused quite the disruption. No doubt an unexpected complication during this first contact."

She smiled, "No harm done." She turned to the ship as a soft mechanical sound could be heard and something began to lower from below the nose.

"Here they come! The ramp seems to be lowering...and yes! Here with Citadel News Network first, the first view of the Humans!"

The Asari is looking excitedly between the ship and the camera as the ramp is lowered and the first Humans begin making their way down. The slate grey and immaculate uniform of the Federation ambassador followed by two of his aides is first, waving as he steps off the last step. A roaring cheer erupts as the crowd waves in greeting.

"With a body shape very close to the Batarians males, their lighter skin color and..fur certainly makes an impression."

The Asari looks back at the camera and begins to move closer to the barrier, the camera following. The ambassador walked forward until he was just out from underneath the nose of the ship.

"Now, this is the ambassador from one of the three governments of Humanity, the Federation, the oldest human government with their capital being their home system of Sol!"

The crowd's cheering dies down as feet are seen moving down the steps again, dazzlingly white attire with vibrant gold trim comes into view as the next ambassador comes into view with his two aides.

"This is the ambassador from the second-oldest government that arose from their first successful colony, the Empire of Acheron!"

The ambassador came forward to stand next to the Federation ambassador and waved, again the crowd cheered and waved back before growing quieter again, another person being seen descending the ramp.

"Now the ambassador from the newest Human government, the Alliance! They are - oh Goddess she's beautiful…"

The Asari trailed off as the Alliance ambassador came into view. The very Asari-like shape of the ambassador was accentuated by the dark green dress that would go on to make it's way into Asari fashion circles for years to come. What really drew the attention was the ambassador's long, red hair that bounced in step with her as she stepped forward to stand next the Imperial ambassador.

With a wave from all three of them, the crowd erupted again, the Asari voices conspicuously louder now.

"Ahem, well, the Alliance ambassador and Human females are sure to make waves in Asari society. Speaking of which, Matriarch T'Soni is coming down from the Human ship now!"

The crowd cheered again as Benezia made her way down the ramp, appearing to glide with a grace that was the envy of not a small amount of the Asari viewers. Velictus and Spectre Odoln following behind her. She moved around to stand in front of the three ambassadors with Velictus and Odoln standing behind and to each side of her.

The crowd went silent as Benezia bowed slightly to them, "It is my great honor and privilege to welcome Humanity, on behalf of myself and all the species of the Council, the the Citadel!"

The crowd cheered for a moment before quieting again as Benezia moved to speak again.

"The Council is waiting, please follow me." With that she turned and walked between Velictus and Odoln who fell into step behind her, the ambassadors following. C-Sec saluting with a fist to the chest as they passed.

The view changed again, returning to the Asari with the crowd and the human ship in the background.

"There you have it, the historic arrival of the Human ambassadors to the Citadel! We will have more coverage of the traditional tour of the Citadel and later with our correspondent in the Council chambers later, thank you and good bye!"

* * *

 **Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Docked, Bridge**

Marcus leaned against the console, looking down the nose of his ship while he watched as the ambassadors left his ship, the external feeds on so he could hear the cheering and speeches.

As the ambassadors made their way away from the landing pad he stood and crossed his arms in front of them for a moment before shaking his head and looking around the dock his ship was in, lingering on the crowd, his eyes following a small, drone that made its way back in front of an Asari.

"Alright, I'm glad I'm not part of that now. Even if they're aliens, I never did like crowds." He turned to the aide that had stayed on his bridge.

"What do you make of all this?"

The aide just shrugged, "It's certainly a spectacle although I think you nearly got your ship shot when you dropped the shields. Don't think they were expecting that."

"Yeah, neither was I though. I'm almost never in atmosphere. Never had air pressure on the shields. Pretty sure it shook the ambassadors up too, hit hard."

Before the conversation could continue, Marcus noticed an incoming communication connection flashing on the comm panel on Citadel frequencies. Seeing it came from the Soft Wind that was pulling into a docking berth near him, he accepted it.

A face popped into his vision as the connection established, at first in a series of disjointed images and static sounds. Figuring out how to get audio and video signals between the technology bases had been difficult. It worked but it was definitely a first-generation attempt.

After a moment, Shiala's face became visible and Marcus smiled, "Shiala! Glad you could make it, I'm surprised you're not going with Benezia."

Shiala smiled back, "Thank you Marcus but she suggested I contact you. She mentioned you would be in your ship for the duration and I wanted to know if you'd like company and the chance to be introduced to some new faces."

"Beats sitting in here staring at the dock." At that Marcus got up to go down to the landing ramp before the aide stepped in his way.

"You shouldn't leave the bridge." Marcus frowned.

"I'm not leaving, I'm going to let an Asari I know on board, one of the three I met at first."

He shook his head, "I'd advise against that, we know very little about these aliens right now."

"I know less about you than I do her."

"With only one gender can you really say it's a 'her'? Besides, it doesn't matter if you don't know me, I'm human."

Marcus barked a laugh, "Yeah but you're an asshole too. Besides, I've had more humans try to kill me."

The aide frowned at that as Marcus stepped around him, as he stepped through the door, Marcus sent a lockout command and all the consoles flashed red and shut down.

"My ship my rules buddy, stay here, I'm going to invite them onboard." With the the door slid shut and locked.

* * *

 **Citadel - Presidium**

Benezia led the ambassadors up the steps, the grandeur of the Council chambers on full display. The light fragrance of the Thessian trees lining the path to the chamber with the tamer examples of Salarian botany surrounding the trunks. Those plots were the largest and drew the eye first, inter-spaced with those two races contributions everyone could see smaller examples of plant life from the other races.

As they reached the top of the largest set of stairs they could see a small island the walking path split around. A large Turian tree stood proudly in the center, it's small needles shimmering a deep purple with veins of silver. A small, hardy plant from the Drell homeworld before it became uninhabitable surrounded the base of the tree. Although attention was pulled by the Hanar displays of their rare land-based mossy plants that climbed part of the trunk of the tree. A short-squat Elcore bush could be spied among the foliage across the plot from the reddish-grey of the Batarian grasses.

The other race's flora were not featured either because they were too different (Volus) or the races weren't part of the Council (Quarian and Krogan)

As Benezia explained the plant life they made their way around the small island to the door to the Council chambers.

"I hope you have all enjoyed the tour of the Citadel. Now, through these doors is the Council chambers."

With that, the doors slowly began to swing open, the height of the doors accentuating the view the chamber provided. The human ambassador's eyes were drawn up as they opened to reveal the view of the Serpent nebula that framed the Councilors.

"They are ready to receive you now." With a bow she stepped to the side, gesturing for them to proceed into the chamber.

As they walked, they went up a last set of stairs, the Council having decided that given the length of time Humanity had been in space, the platform those coming to see the Council was raised to be almost but noticeably not level with the Councilors.

The three ambassadors stepped up, their aides waiting at the base of the stairs with a variety of recording implements going discreetly.

After a moment of regarding each other, Councilor Tevos began, "Honored ambassadors, I cannot express how excited we all are to meet you."

The ambassadors inclined their heads to her before she continued, "I am Councilor Tevos."

The Salarian councilor spoke next, "I am Councilor Bursik."

The Turian next, "And I am Councilor Sparatus."

Before Tevos could prompt them, the ambassadors introduced themselves.

"I am Ambassador Denton Fields."

"I am Ambassador Daniel Calf."

"I am Holly Bastogne, the Ambassador for the Alliance and independent humans."

The other two shot a glance at her that she ignored."

Secretly, Tevos smirked, glad to see political guile in the human that most closely resembled an Asari.

The lights in the chamber dimmed, "As Humanity has been gracious enough to give a history to our ambassador, Matriarch T'Soni, we wish to explain the history of this Council."

With a flourish of her arm, the space between the two groups was suddenly filled with the translucent blue hologram of a planet as a voice echoed through the room.

"Thessia, homeworld of the oldest member race of the Council, the Asari."

They all watched as history was laid out for them.

* * *

 **Orca-Class ship 'Brick' - Docked, Bridge**

Marcus watched Shiala's face as he let the video play, he could feel the tension build in the air as he heard his voice countdown.

"(One) One - I'm a Pilot!" He paused the video just as Benezia screamed as the ship rushed forward into hyperspace and Shiala and the Quarian she had brought with - Han Tolan vas Greedor, from the Soft Wind, broke down into a laughing fit.

Even Uolon chuckled as he looked at their faces. Seeing an Asari Matriarch showing that much emotion was rare but his amusement was tempered by his memory of that first jump and being worried he was about to die.

Marcus ended up having to close the video there since Shiala had a tough time seeing Benezia without the image of her screaming frozen in a new perfect hologram on the bridge of the ship. Once she had gotten a hold of herself she wiped a tear from her eye and Marcus briefly found it weird how similar the Asari were to Humans.

"Ok, Marcus, you've got me beat. I don't have anything like that on the Matriarch. That's prime blackmail material there."

"Nah, I just think it's funny. Although seeing her here with the ambassadors makes me kind of cringe thinking about how I've joked around with her. She's someone really important here isn't she?"

Han Tolan cut in at that, "Very much so, so much so that she can openly employ a Quarian and no one thinks twice about it."

Marcus stopped for a moment before answering that, "That's right, because of the whole stigma your race seems to have because they created a race of AI."

Han deflated a bit at that, "Unfortunately, yes. I can only imagine how you Humans are going to react to us. How does humanity see AI? Considering how automated your systems must be to pilot the ships you do without a crew….has your race had issues with AI?"

"Well, I'm not sure how we'll react. I personally don't care much, our computers are complex but like our other tech, a lot of time and effort has gone into making it as efficient as possible. As for AI?"

He got up and shrugged, turning to look out the viewport at the dock, the crowd having thinned out to C-Sec guards and the die-hard curious.

"I'm not sure it's translating correctly because we use artificial intelligence a lot." He saw Han, Shiala, and Uolon tense at that.

"I think it's just a different term we use because we have smart systems, 'intelligent' systems. No, what I think you're talking about is machine sentience."

Uolon tilted his head in thought, "I think you're right, we still have narrowly-defined artificial intelligence, we call them Virtual Intelligence."

Marcus nodded, "It's not actually well known in human space but after the first a few problems with machine sentience came to light that it's one of the few, " he turned back to look Han in the...faceplate, " _few_ things that will get all three governments working together without any hassle."

Han was taken aback at that, "Really?"

"Yeah, I've found some things about it in my travels and creating a machine sentience has been stamped out ruthlessly." he thought for a moment, "oddly enough though, there's no actual laws about it."

"It's not outlawed?" The Quarian seemed agitated at that.

"No, not sure why not though." The conversation was then derailed by Shiala.

"Marcus, speaking of laws, I wanted to ask you about something from where I first met you."

Marcus looked at Shiala with a look she couldn't quite identify but after a moment nodded, "Ok, what about it?"

She paused for a brief second before bringing up her Omni-tool, an image of a wreck of a ship.

"Do you remember this ship?"

His face went blank as he stared at the image, his eyes darting around the image before focusing on the dull glow of melted metal in the center of the image.

Shiala waited for a few seconds before adding, "This pirate cruiser was found in that same system with this damage and a chunk of the ship spinning off. It looks like you-"

He cut her off, "Burned the hull of the ship out and then slagged the bridge. Yeah. I did. I was pretty sure they were slavers and they were going to get away."

He looked down and his shoulders dropped, "I kind of hate having done that, I didn't know if they had slaves on the ship and if I could have done anything to save them, aliens or no."

Silence hung in the room for a moment, "After I did that I sat there staring at the wreck for a good ten minutes."

He shook his head as he crossed his arms and leaned against the back of his seat, his voice became quieter, "If I'd have left right away or not even have gone after that ship I might have been able to…."

Marcus felt his eyes go unfocused as his attention dove inwards, running through the events of that freighter again before he felt a hand on his shoulder. He twitched and his eyes shot up to see Shiala looking at him concerned.

Looking at the other two that had different measures of concern on their faces as well he shook himself.

"Yeah, I caught up with the ship and did that. With everything that you all-" he gestures to Uolon, "saw when we were going through the Council systems, it's probably not going to be a secret that we have sensors that work at FTL speeds."

Han almost fell over at that, scrambling onto his feet, "What?!"

* * *

 **Citadel - Presidium, Council Chambers**

As the presentation wound down with the explanation of the Geth uprising and the statement that last few centuries of Council history being peaceful, the holograms dissolved and the lights in the Council chambers returned to their normal levels.

Tevos lead again after the presentation, "Ambassadors of Humanity, it is in the spirit of our history and the promise of a future built on cooperation that we, The Citadel Council, now want to extend the invitation of joining us as members of the Citadel races."

The three of them subtly exchanged glances, not giving much more away as they kept their faces neutral. Later logs would show low-powered but complex radio signals were passed rapidly between the human ambassadors at this time. Finally after a moment, Denton Fields stepped forward.

"Councilors, on behalf of the five point three trillion humans I would like to first say that we look forward to learning more about you. We hope to spend the next few months here among your races to learn about you all."

The Councilors hid their shock well at that, each of them secretly thankful of the distance between them and Human space as memories of a destroyed pirate cruiser coming to mind. The fact that Commander Rein's personal ship was capable of doing so and there being over five trillion humans caused no small amount of anxiety.

Tevos recovered first, "Ambassadors, we will prepare a space on the Presidium for the duration of your stay if you would like. Let us adjourn to a more comfortable location for now to continue our discussion."

With that, the Councilors made their way out of the chambers, the casual dismissal of their invitation and the human's desire to stay on the Citadel for a time was a setup for complications.

Outwardly, the three human ambassadors stepped out of the chambers and followed Benezia out. Those not included in the text communications via their mindcoms would assume they were of one mind. Those who knew better were preparing for the vitrol.

* * *

 **Citadel - Presidium, Spectre Quarters**

"Welcome back Spectre Odoln", his rapid steps down the hallway in the Spectre section of the Presidium echoed down the hallway. He made sure his footfalls were noisy as a courtesy to any other Spectre that may be in at the same time.

The Spectre offices were secure but given the amount of time spent in some of the most dangerous areas of the galaxy…

' _Known galaxy now.'_ he thought to himself, remembering the series of jumps in the human starship.

Given the danger most Spectres were routinely in, it was sometime difficult to not shoot on reflex, even in the Spectre offices.

He came to the main room to see two of his colleagues, Tela Vasir and a newer Turian member, Caeus Verillin if he remembered correctly.

Vasir smirked at him as he went directly to the secure terminal, "Odoln, finally back from human space? What did you find out about them?"

While his fingers flew over his Omni-tool to transfer the information that he'd deemed too sensitive to transmit, he answered.

"Humans could be a viable threat to Citadel security if they decide to involve themselves. Long-standing fractured governments in place don't suggest they'll join the Council. Distance from Relay-connected space affords them the luxury of never speaking to us again if they decide not to."

Not looking up from the Omni-tool or terminal, he didn't see Vasir's frown, "Expanding on my initial report I must add that should they become hostile, Council may need to sacrifice much to sue for peace."

At that Vasir stood and rushed over to Odoln, "You can't be serious, let me see what the hell data made you come up with that."

Odoln stepped back and finished transferring his data before looking at Vasir as she stood close to him, attempting to intimidate on reflex.

"Hmmm...look over the data, I'm sure you'll see the same patterns as I."

He stepped away to sit, noticing the new Turian Spectre had the good sense to simply observe for the time being.

"Pay close attention to the cross reference of traffic in the Council systems Commander Rein travelled and the sensor readings observed while in "Supercruise", I'd suggest you attempt to do so objectively. If you think the Asari are the most advanced, I've included the data from the Soft Wind on the escort mission to the Citadel."

At that she simply half snarled at her as she angrily paged through the data, now ignoring him.

Odoln brought up a list of tasks put forth to the Spectres as a whole to see if there were any he would complete. He had made it part the way down the list when he had seen a dossier for a Krogan Battlemaster turned mercenary that had been becoming more active around labs that specialized in genetic engineering when Vasir moved back from the terminal, sitting heavily in the seat across from him.

He marked the Krogan's file and closed his Omni-tool to see Vasir staring at him with a grimace on her face as she hit a command on her Omni-tool and one of the walls faded into a video. The human ship visible as a camera on the Soft Wind focused on it.

Readings scrolled by on each side as the video played, the ship suddenly disappearing after a brief flash of distortion. Shortly after that the feed cuts out as the Soft Wind goes FTL.

Odoln glanced over the readings again before speaking, "Short distances our ships seem to have the advantage in FTL. Human ships accelerate in FTL slower but is offset by the Human's FTL-capable sensors."

Vasir nodded before bringing up an overview of a system, "This is the first-contact system."

A spot was highlighted and then a line connected the spot in space with the relay.

"Here's where the freighter was intercepted and the Human made contact, here's the distance to the Relay."

She hit another command and a dot left the freighter site moving at a constant speed.

"The pirate cruiser left the site…" She hit another key and a new dot left the freighter site, slowly at first before accelerating and stopping when it came to the pirate cruiser.

Odoln looked at the image, "Pirate cruiser?" Vasir just raised her hand and continued.

"According to the acceleration curve data you pulled, it would have taken exactly this long for the human ship, the first one you left in, to reach the same speed as the pirate cruiser."

The images changed to the scene of the pirate cruiser, the melted sections on the ship, the slagged engines, finally the large chunk of the ship having been melted out and the bridge slagged.

"Somehow the human managed to 'find' the pirate cruiser at earliest possible point he could have intercepted it, dropped out of FTL and then proceeded to dismantle the ship -"

The image switched, showing the large piece that had been cut out, "Cut INTO the _cruiser_ with what had to be directed energy weapons before turning the bridge of the ship into a metal-organic slag that was still glowing hours later when we found it."

Odoln leaned forward and leafed through the information, "You're suggesting Commander Rein's ship had FTL interception capabilities?"

"Interdiction, they have FTL sensors, the evidence suggests at the very least, interdiction ability at FTL speeds."

Silence stretched for a moment before Vasir sighed, "We should take another look over the Spectre candidates. I don't want us to be caught unprepared."

Odoln simply nodded and brought the list up.

* * *

 **Author's Note: They've made it! Now things will speed up a bit. Since the focus of this story is mainly on Commander Rein and those in his immediate vicinity, the story will veer a little further from what fan fictions normally do.**

 **Anyway, next chapter will have more human viewpoints, some reactions, and just what in the hell Marcus is going to do besides wait around as a taxi for some diplomats.**


End file.
